2014 Raffault Picasses - TN and thank you Joel

[DavidG]

First a shoutout to Joel, who knew I wanted to try the 2014 Picasses but was too slow to get around to ordering any. When I stopped by last week to pick up a box of stuff we bought together he snuck this bottle in as a gift. Thank you!

What better time to open it than than the penultimate night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve.

2014 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses Pop and pour, the nose is immediately generous with plenty of cherry, forest floor, tobacco, and a bit of mouth-watering weedy green-ness. Solidly medium-bodied with crunchy fruit following the nose, crisp fresh acidity, moderate tannins, medium finish. Too young for any real complexity but all the pieces are in place. A pleasure to drink now but will certainly reward cellaring. 12.6% ABV. A classic Picasses. Excellent.

[SF Ed]

I love these wines. The QPR is outstanding and they age for decades.

SF Ed

[DavidG]

Agreed, Ed. I still have a couple ‘89s and they’re going strong.

An hour later, this bottle is shutting down, with fruit hiding behind the tannins.

[Blanquito]

I need to give Raffault another chance.

[DavidG]

Gotta agree with SFEd. It is great QPR.

[JoelD]

You're quite welcome, David. Glad you enjoyed it.

Thus far, I've preferred other producers from the Loire. Breton and Baudry for example. But I do see the draw with this wine. Even an 02 that Eric brought out recently was arguably too young for my tastes. Better on the second day. I'm definitely curious to see where these go in the future.

[ericindc]

If we have another dinner where it would be an appropriate wine, I'll open one of the '83 Raffaults I have left.

But the Raffaults will never have the fruit level of Baudry or Breton.

[JimS]

2010 starting to hit its stride a bit but aging at a glacial pace. Opened one a few weeks ago and it was lovely. A fantastic QPR and hope it stays that way.

[JimHow]

I bought a case of 2014 Raffault Picasses a while back, I have only two bottles left. I'm going to try to keep my hands off them for another couple blanquitos. I looove that vintage. I think jckba has all bottles of the 2014 vintage that remain in existence.

[DavidG]

So the Picasses opened back up a bit by the end of the evening.

Jim, can't blame you for sucking them down in short order. They do reward long-term cellaring.

Eric - no disagreement. Picasses isn't Baudry and it isn't a knock your socks off kind of wine. It is easy to find (if you don't dally like I did with the 2014), it's a great QPR, and it's just plain good old-fashioned solid and reliable Loire Cab Franc.

I might go so far as to say Picasses is the Leoville Barton of the Loire.