2010 Les Picasses

There are few women who have given their names to estates in the Loire but Olga Raffault is one of them. She took over the reins of the estate in tragic circumstances: in 1947, her husband passed away unexpectedly leaving her to look after their two young children and undertake the impending harvest without him. She succeeded and has passed the baton on. Today, granddaughter Sylvie and husband Eric de la Vigerie run the estate. They arrived in 2000 with no winemaking experience – she worked in perfume, he was in finance – but that hasn’t stopped them. Since returning to Chinon, they have achieved organic certification (2015) and have refined their range, making Cabernet Franc and a splash of Chenin Blanc. The cuvées are now differentiated by soil type and the winemaking is altered accordingly. Les Barnabés is the ‘entry’ level style, grown on gravel and fermented in stainless steel, Les Peuilles sits on siliceous clays and spends 6-12 months in 70hL foudres, while Les Picasses, grown on limestone can take more serious maturation: it spends 12-24 months in 30hL foudres. Its cuvée La Singulière was first made in 2008 and is only produced when conditions allow: it is a selection of the ripest fruit that is liberally oaked. As a result, it sacrifices some of the elegance and delicacy that makes Raffault’s wines so attractive. Next generation Arnault is waiting in the wings and has already produced a new Chenin Blanc, OR, with his grandfather Eric de la Vigerie.