A Quick Trip to Chinon for a Wine Tasting

The month of May is going to be a busy one for me. It all kicks off that first weekend when I have a big tasting here in Houston for about sixty people, a fundraiser for a local dance company (tickets HERE). This is my fourth year conducting the tasting for the Uptown Dance Company and each year it has been a lot of fun.

It is also a lot of work.

The event itself is pretty straightforward: it is an evening of dance performances interspersed with the tasting of four different wines, one at a time. I talk about each wine for a few minutes as the dancers prepare for their next routine in the wings. I try to have a theme every year with the wines, and in the past, they have coincided (at least partially) with the dances.

This year, however, I decided to go in a bit of a different direction and simply present some of my favorite wines and the stories behind how they became so. Since there is a budget, however (I mean, it is a fundraiser), it would not be all that easy to find wines that a) I find particularly compelling, b) I could find a case of it here in Houston, and c) enabled me to stay within the prescribed budget.

After a few swings and just as many misses, I found that the huge Texas wine store, Spec’s, carried a number of wines from one of my favorite producers in the Loire Valley, Couly-Dutheil. I fell in love with Chinon and Couly-Dutheil when I was working as a cycling tour guide in France. The town was the final stop on a week-long trip through the Upper Loire and the town’s cobbled streets and rich history quickly won me over.

The wine also helped.

La Maison Rouge, in the center of Chinon, where I believe I first tasted Clos de l’Echo.

Couly-Dutheil was founded in 1921, so it is relatively young by French standards, but they own perhaps the most coveted vineyard in Chinon: the Clos de l’Echo, which was first planted in the 9th Century. In the 15th Century, some seven hundred years later, the famed vineyard was owned by Antoine Rabelais, the father of the Renaissance satirist, François Rabelais. The younger Rabelais, perhaps best known for writing Gargantua and Pantagruel (which I had to read as a French major in college), is believed to have said that a good glass of Chinon wine would do more for you than putting your faith in Catholicism.

Shortly afterwards, he was banned by the Church.

Sounded like a fun guy. Good enough for me.

Fast forward to this week, and there I stood, staring at the bottles, all with a bit of age on them, and even though two of the bottles were not contenders for the tasting (I needed a red, so the white was out and the Clos de l’Echo was a bit too expensive), I bought all four to taste at home and reminisce about my many trips to the town and the winery.

2021 Couly-Dutheil Les Chanteaux, Chinon, France: Retail $30. Responsible Bottle (563g; 19.8oz). 100% Chenin Blanc. Synthetic stopper. I saw this at my local shop, and, having some fond (and not so fond) memories, decided to take a flyer. As I mentioned in my piece a few years ago, there seems to be a stopper issue (still) with this wine. It is golden in the glass, yes, it is well past “yellow,” but the aromas and flavors are still there (no clear signs of oxidation past the color). A very rich nose of ripe yellow peach, a mineral aspect, and just a hint of fresh white flower. The palate is rich as well and also quite viscous, with a weighty mouthfeel and a glycerol aspect that is quite compelling. Good fruit and acidity all the way through to the lengthy finish. Really nice. Now, about that “cork”… Excellent. 91 Points.

2019 Couly-Dutheil Les Gravieres d’Amador Abbé de Turpenay, Chinon, France: Retail $20. Responsible Bottle (563g; 19.8oz). 100% Cabernet Franc. I bought a few bottles of Couly-Dutheil to sample for a couple of wine tastings that I will be leading in May. We tasted this first, naturally (perhaps), and it shows a medium color in the glass (opaque, but far from brooding) with classic Cabernet Franc aromas of red and black berry fruit (cranberry, blackberry), with touches of vanilla and green pepper (OK, the pyrazine is more prominent than the vanilla). The palate is pretty close to spectacular with oodles of acidity, plenty of fruit, and a nice verve. Yeah, there are better Cab Francs out there, but this is stellar and more than affordable. Excellent. 90 Points.

2016 Couly-Dutheil La Baronnie Madeleine, Chinon, France: Retail $25. Responsible Bottle (584g; 20.4oz). Under cork. 100% Cabernet Franc. I have been a fan of the winery (despite its well-known struggles) for decades. Back in the day, I was a cycling tour guide in Europe, and one of my tours ended in Chinon. Could-Dutheil has a large presence in the town as well as a significant history. But the wines. While the Clos de l’Echo is the flagship, this La Baronnie Madeleine is no slouch (at ~$10/bottle less). Great red and black fruit on the nose and plate with a solid hint of green pepper. The palate adds quite a bit of tartness, depth, and intrigue, this is really a fabulous wine, and a steal for the price. Excellent. 92 Points.

2018 Couly-Dutheil Clos de l’Echo, Chinon, France: Retail $40. Responsible Bottle (561g; 19.7oz). Under Nomacorc (UGH!). 100% Chenin Blanc. My last note contained much of the info I would again convey here, but the wine is better than I last stated (at least this bottle), and I purchased through another avenue: Spec’s. I have a couple of big tastings coming up, and I was looking for a bit of a “ringer” if you will. Well, I think I found it. Inky dark with a luscious, inviting nose of dark fruit (blackberry, plum), earth, a subtle floral aspect, a hint of vanilla, and layers of complexity and verve. Whoa. Yeah. Pretty amazing before even the first sip. The palate is equally, no, more opulent with considerable weight, depth, and complexity. Whoa. This is simply an incredible wine (and for $33?? Forget about it) with incredible fruit, earth, tannin, a zingy tartness, and a finish that goes on for days. I loved the last bottle (93 Points), this is another level entirely. Outstanding (and really close to Extraordinary). 96 Points.