Baudry, Bernard 2021 Chinon "Les Grezeaux"

One of the most pleasurable red wines of the Loire Valley, the Baudry Chinon "Les Grézeaux " is from a unique parcel of sixty year-old vines near the bottom of the slope in Sonnay (near Cravant-les-Coteaux) on a bed of gravel over a base of clay, sand and limestone. The grapes are harvested by hand of course and fermented with wild yeasts with zero SO2 added during vinification. Beginning in 2017, the wine ages in large cement vats by Nico Velo, which are slightly porous. Les Grézeaux always has an elegant silky texture and wonderful freshness, making it delicious as a young wine, combined with the ability to age beautifully for 20 years and more in good vintages. The 2021 "Les Grezeaux" shows beautiful floral, red fruit and herbal aromas with a fresh and very pretty mid palate, sapid and medium-boded with a melange of red fruits and minerals in the long finish. Serve this cool over the next ten years, but as "lighter" vintages of Loire Cab Franc often cellar beautifully, perhaps forget a few in the cellar for 20 years. Wish I had some 2002...