Charles Joguet, Chinon, Varennes Grand Clos

Ouvert 1 heure puis passe en carafe. Nez assez retenu puis s’ouvrant sur des arômes d’écurie qui passent assez vite, une touche de poivrons, épices. La bouche est superbe, tout en nuances, fruitée et végétale, complexe et profonde. Belle finale avec une touche de fraîcheur. Encore beaucoup de réserves. J’aime beaucoup!

2005 vintage

Evolved beautifully over 2 hours open at lunch, long life ahead too. Hard to pick favorites between this and Dioterie..

2005 vintage

PnP. ABV 13.5%. €45 auction punt. Pristine bottle. Still dark ruby in color, not showing anything remotely close to being 21 years old. Subtle nose, relatively clean with just a smidgen of Cab Franc funk. Dark fruits with tannins partially resolved. Rich and ripe but not excessive. Excellent density and concentration, similar to ‘05 Bordeaux. Finished spicy and a tad warm at backend. Still a few years away from prime time but approachable now with some decant. Pretty good wine …

2005 vintage

Popped and poured. Black cherry, herbs, smoke and a little bell pepper. This excellent Loire which has aged quite well. Medium bodied with excellent balance. About the right time to drink this.

2005 vintage

Tight at first, this opened up nicely after an hour or so in the decanter. Elegant and austere, with a nice undertone of dark fruit. Lots of time left, but drinking well with some air.

2005 vintage

Brought this to an old friend's place for a gathering with two of my best friends from the university days. We had food from Lor 5 Toa Payoh: clay pot chicken rice, fried hokkien mee, chicken and pork satay, barbecued chicken wings and sambal stingray. Wine was decanted for 1.5 hours before drinking. Purplish-red in colour, with notes of forest floor, charcoal, black coffee, bell pepper, dark fruits, and a touch of herbaceousness. On the palate, the texture is velvety, …

2009 vintage

This was a great bottle of Cabernet Franc! In a a good spot now, but plenty longer to go for sure.

2009 vintage

Like last year's bottle, this was absolutely delicious. No change from what I noted then. The 2026 CT drink-by limit is much too early.

2009 vintage

Decanted about 1.5 hours and consumed over the following hour. Deep, virtually opaque garnet-red color. Subdued but complex nose of herbs, coffee, plums, tar, and some iron. Rather austere on the palate yet balanced, full without being rich, with plenty of fruit, acidity, and mild, ripe tannins. This was my first experience with an aged Chinon and I found it interesting but sort of lost somewhere between a good Burgundy and a good Bordeaux, without the complexity or depth of …

2005 vintage

Wow is this good. It’s got a touch of supplemental richness from a riper year, but just enough to ensure it’s properly medium-bodied, and not in any way overripe. A little hit of damp earth opens it up, and then it’s all red fruit and green tobacco. Pretty much archetypal Cabernet Franc. Reminds me a bit of Sociando Mallet, and that’s a good thing. Still has a decent tannic bite on the finish, but there’s more than enough depth to …

2009 vintage

Mouth-watering aromas of sweet raspberry and violets, with hints of peonies too - delightful. On the palate, a bright attack of raspberry, then a series of waves of flavours, ranging from violet, to plum, to blueberry, to blackcurrant, then back to raspberry, and so forth. Quite ripe, quite rich, but not at all syrupy, this has a strong sense of place with that Chinon chalkiness, a slight hint of green to the finish. The fruit is ripe but subtle, oozing …

2009 vintage

Tasted next to the 2005 Franc de Pied from the same vineyard. Fragrant nose with classic Cabernet Franc nose of green bell pepper, red fruit, pepper, and dark cherries. The palate has quite a bit of acidity and structural tannins with black cherry, asphalt, leather, and more green pepper notes. Nice finish. A lovely wine that in comparison to the FdP feels a bit more "typical" for a Chinon, but also is less complex and nuanced.

2005 vintage

Barnyard and shoe polish on the nose. Slightly bretty. Bloody, inky, leathery. Not a “clean” wine but I like it.

2005 vintage

Good vibrant purple angular fruit. High classiness factor. Fabulous herbal notes. Fruit is dark but lean. High acid. Was hoping this might fatten up more with age, but this is my last bottle so maybe I jumped the gun. The 2005 vintage has turned out less dense than I was hoping, actually I'm preferring the 2006s, although that might not be the popular opinion. Still, this is a very very good bottle of top notch Chinon. Drink or hold for …

2005 vintage

(Les Av.) Au nez, premières impressions diffuses tant qu'il n'est pas aéré: certains disent bordeaux, je penche Syrah rhône nord, puis CF! En s'ouvrant, le poivron mûr s'impose, le menthol, la noisette (élevage), pas de doute on est en loire sur un beau millésime solaire et fin (2010?), il a de la tension, de la profondeur, beaucoup de fraîcheur, allez, on est tous d'accord : Chinon. Au final, encore un très beau "Varennes" sur un millésime que j'affactionne (ah les …

2007 vintage

Excellent. Youthful, drinking great. Herbs and angular fruit. Great complexity. Love it. Drinking well now or hold.

2005 vintage

Clear ruby. Herbaceous red fruit but not too pungent or pronounced. Light weight, very fresh red fruit, some bitter chocolate, excellent acidity, and a superb, stony finish. Almost identical showing to a bottle 3 years ago-this has not lost one bit. Quite beautiful Chinon that was a splendid match with spit-roasted, herbed chicken.

2007 vintage

Still young, fresh, dense and developing a very typical CF bouquet. Some time left, no problem. Very nice wine with duck and beef meats I loved it

2005 vintage

To me it seemed that this is more harsh and with higher acidity than FdP version. Overall, still a very beautiful wine, still on the young side. On the finish the same lemon juice as in FdP supplemented by sandpaper feeling.

2005 vintage

Bretty, smells of cows and India as well as cement floor. There's also peppermint and some soft wood aromas. Quite a lot of mint actually and wild roses on the finish. A brilliant, complex wine, WOTN for me and the group.

1990 vintage

The colour was very dark and intense. The nose, like the taste, was very closed at first, taking a good two hours in the decanter to open up, before revealing aromas of forest fruits, yeast and eucalyptus, with spices and charcoal. The attack is powerful, silky and ripe, but the actual flavours are quite muted at first; the middle section is full-bodiedn but a little chalky, with a strong sense of bell pepper, before a rich seam of fruit, where …

2009 vintage

Still seems youthful. Rich red and black fruit. No signs of bricking. Improved with a couple of hours of air.

2005 vintage

Still completely shut down. No change from 3.5 years ago. Technical score: 89. Enjoyment score: 87.

2009 vintage

Beautiful deep, even ruby with a saturation that so many of the '05s have had to set them apart visually. Strong green tones and olive. Medium weight with the glycerine and ripeness of the year. Dark cherry fruit, excellent acidity and real stoniness. After about 2 hours, this began to dry out. At least very good at this point, but is it starting to slide?

2005 vintage

Rich and full bodied. Brooding flavours of subdued dark fruit with hints of earth and autumn leaf. Good tannins. Seems almost youthful. A very nice wine.

2005 vintage

From Auberge du Val de Vienne, Sazilly. €59 off the list. No formal note. This was dark fruited, dense, yet gracious and velvety at the same time, some spice notes, balanced acidity, slightly firm good length finish. Enjoyable but should be better in another 5 years or so.

2005 vintage

Casket bearing.

2009 vintage

Ruby. Ripe blackberry. Beautiful weight and texture, excellent depth of fruit, complementary olive tones, light tannins. Almost mature, nice balance without seeming overripe.

2005 vintage

Even ruby throughout. Classic nose of herbs and green olive. Lovely texture with a chocolatey undertone and brisk acidity supporting bright red and blue fruit. The olive comes through on the palate as well. Dry but plenty of fruit and stuffing. An object lesson in how a wine can be complete and satisfying without being unduly ripe. This is a seriously underrated holding for Joguet that is showing splendidly now.

2007 vintage

Really needs another 5 years - good structure but relatively closed.

2009 vintage

A very nice full bodied Cab Franc that was a great pleasure to consume

2005 vintage

Grafted vs Ungrafted Cabernet Franc : Greener, more pungent nose than FdP bottling. Light red fruits, a bit of barnyard (FdP had none), long finish. Quite round and harmonic. Seemed to be more edgy and green but also more concentrated than FdP.

2005 vintage

Dinner in Orlando (Robert's House) : Very lovely wine with beautiful red rose tones, cranberries, & tobacco. This had a really sappy palate with a density that seemed more fit for maybe 1997 or 2000. This has aged very nicely and I think it has another decade ahead of it.

1990 vintage

Full of fresh, crunchy berries, a little grass sap, pepper and earth. The tannins seem quite soft - if they've been this way or are beginning to melt, I can't tell. For me, this comes across as an accessible and bright expression of Loire cabernet franc. Elegant but fun too.

2009 vintage

TTTG (Salil's) : Ripe, dark fruit with a mild underlying herbal characteristic. For all of its ripeness, the fruit is very focused and possesses concentrated acidity. Finishes very lengthy with persistent tannins. With air the fruit was dialed back a bit and revealed a well-balanced wine, but this is still young and brooding. Very Good – Hold

2009 vintage

Very brief notes from TTTG (blind) (Vernon, CT) : Very ripe fruit with some herbal notes. Somewhat hot. Seems much denser and more viscous than its medium weight. Good acidity. Hold. Please hold.

2009 vintage

Third Thursday tasting group (Vernon, CT) : This is a beast. Incredibly dense and concentrated with lots of ripe dark berried fruit tinged with faint herbal and earthy notes. With time the fruit takes a step back and it becomes more savoury, but the sheer density of the fruit and the amount of tannin makes this pretty challenging to drink now, and it's more about potential than pleasure.

2009 vintage

For lovers of CF, this is the s**t! Admittedly, at this early stage, it's a particularily cumbersome wine to drink: score is high already today, but drinkability is rather low. Decanted over many hours. Was both aggro and neggo from the pop. Dark red. Nose of CF vegetabilia as in star fruit and wet bricks. This one is rich with tones of warm climate. I also pick up spearmint (as in kissing someone who just brushed their teeth), cacao powder, …

2009 vintage

Tasted blind. Dark core to a slim watery rim. Fragrant, henna, damson, green pepper nose. The palate is intense black fruit, medium tannins and with a lovely olive edge on the long finish. Classy wine.

2009 vintage

Popped and poured. Dark ruby, watery rim. Bold aromatcis. Dark, tarry, barnyard, earthy, green leaf. The palate has concentrated dark berry fruit, lots of tannins still showing but not tough, giving an earthy astringency which leaves you with a long savoury finish. This is a good wine now but will be better with a few more years on ageing so certainly a 90+

2009 vintage

Great nose, rich, broad fruit, earth, herbs, spices. Showing bright fruit notes and pronounced acidity on the palate, slightly dry and a bit austere as well, but elegant and fine with a good finish.

2007 vintage

This is a very nice elegant wine. Good structure, almost Bordeaux-like, but with more of the autumn leaf aromas and flavours. Well integrated. Brooding and complex with hints of graphite and earth overlaying subdued red and black fruit. Alcohol reported as 12.5%. Awesome!

2007 vintage

The wine is clear and bright with a deep ruby colour and presence of legs. The nose is clean and developing, showing medium+ intensity aromas of acid strawberries, red currants, white pepper, lavender and pyrazine. The wine is dry in the mouth with a medium+ acidity. It has medium fine grained tannins and medium+ alcohol. It has a medium+ body and medium+ intensity flavours of strawberries, red currants, white pepper, lavender and pyrazine. The finish is medium+. It is a …

2007 vintage

Grande structure, très jeune, aromatique très réservée. Pas encore ouvert.

2005 vintage

This was a nice surprise. I've tasted a fair amount of Joguet but never the Varennes du Grand Clos, which I think stands out the most from the rest of the lineup. Not as easily identifiable as a Chinon upon first pour; I would have guessed a modern-styled Pomerol. The '07 VdGC lacks some of the aromatic charm that exudes from Joguet's Dioderie and Chene Vert bottlings, but makes up for it with a structure that is extremely focused--like acrobatics …

2007 vintage

Very tight and a bit of a mess.

2009 vintage

A very fruit-forward Chinon, with ripe black fruit, good heft, and a rustic, tannic finish. $55 off the list at Table.

2009 vintage

Still very closed, completely shut down. Decanted for 4+ hours and no real improvement. Nice, earthy aroma on the nose, but built for the long-haul. There was a tad of fruit when slightly chilled, but mainly the green/sour notes prevailed. Was better with food, but still extremely tightly-wound, especially on the tail. Would consider trying again after 2020.

2009 vintage

feb 2013 decanted for 30 min then drunk over an hour or so. bought on release and stored chez moi - nice cork this still has a youthful hue with hints a magenta, still dark and vivid. The nose is a bit shy showing still primary notes of cherry, raspberry, a little clean dirt and pepper. The palate is firm and still a bit tight. really nice tannins that are quite present and holding everything together very well with some …

2005 vintage

This wine was a mess. Thin and disjointed. Big rough tannins on the back end. Nose gave very little. Needs a long, long time.

2009 vintage

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Charles Joguet, Chinon, Varennes Grand Clos

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