Let's Be Franc - Cabernet Franc from Raffault, and Baudry, and new arrivals from Benoit Courault!
9/28/24 -
Photo: Olga Raffault in 1990 (David Lillie)
It was so long ago, I don't remember the year, maybe 1990, when an importer and I visited Domaine Olga Raffault to arrange their first export to the US. Olga's partner and winemaker, the wonderful Ernest Zeinninger, a former German prisoner of war, kept going to the cellar for more old bottles. They were a revelation - even from shitty vintages - showing an earthy complexity unlike anything from boring old Bordeaux! Olga told some off-color jokes and put a push-pin on New York in a map of the world...
It was around the same time that we started importing the beautiful Chinons of Bernard Baudry, shipped to us by an agent in France who was a 7-ft tall ex-American basketball player. Go figure! Knowing the Baudry family has been one of the great pleasures of my wine career - Bernard, Henriette, Matthieu and Hélène will soon celebrate the 50th anniversary of this superb estate!
At any rate, we are still happily working with these two exceptional domains and are happy to offer new releases, both mature and ready to drink, and recently bottled, destined for your cellar! These are among the very finest wines of the Loire Valley, full of life and amazing limestone/clay character. This is the first release of the Raffault's amazing 2015 Chinon "La Singulière" and of the Baudry's top wine, the 2021 Chinon "La Croix Boissée" - quantities are very limited on these two outstanding wines...
-David Lillie
Benoit Courault (Photo: Isaac Rosenthal)
In addition to these classic wines from Raffault and Baudry, presented by my father, David, I'm piggybacking on this offer with new cuvées from Benoit Courault (including a Cabernet Franc!). A warm, rustic vigneron originally from the Angers area, Benoit traveled to other regions before returing to the Loire to farm some very small parcels in Anjou. Though Benoit is not originally from a winemaking family (his father was a horse trader), he wanted to make wine, and so left the Loire Valley to study oenology in Beaune. While studying, he was impressed by the wines of Yvon Metras and Dominique Derain, and was convinced that these were the types of wines he wanted to make. His practical studies led him to the south of France, where he met Eric Pfifferling while working for an estate close to Tavel. He joined Pfifferling for over two years, and then moved back to the Loire Valley. Here he spent some time working and learning with Olivier Cousin, and the Menard family at Domaine des Sablonnettes. Finally, he heard of a small parcel going up for rent and he started his project. Now, more than ten years later, he seems quite content with his life, and is making some remarkable wines! -Eben Lillie
