Olga Raffault is best known for red Chinon from the Les Picasses vineyard, an incredibly long-lived, classic expression of limestone terroir through a Cabernet Franc lens. Their most undeniably joyous wine, however, is this rosé. This annual favorite is in fact one of the best examples of a rosé that manages to be delicious enough for drinking on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and also complex enough that it can elevate a meal.

The first time we encountered Thibaud Boudignon’s Savennières ‘Clos de la Hutte’ it clobbered us. We didn’t know anything about Boudignon or his wines, so we expected something typical of the appellation: a wine of opulent, confit fruit flavors, dry but unctuous, maybe even honeyed. Instead, the wine was like a salty lemon laser beam melting our faces: brilliant, explosive, and precisely focused. Amazing out of the gate, it continued to blossom sip by sip, showing the kind of depth and class of a first-rate Grosses Gewächs or Grand Cru Chablis.

Gérard Boulay is a quiet guy. He lets Chavignol do the talking.
 
And with his family’s collection of prime terroirs, the message comes through loud and clear: the wines crackle with energy and crystal-clear expressions of terroir, balancing profound minerality with deliciously ripe fruit.