| Review: |
The cabernet franc bottling from Thomas Pastuszak and Jessica Brown at Terrassen is produced from thirty year-old vines, planted on gravel, clay and shale soils. The 2018 comes in at twelve percent alcohol, is nicely transparent in color and offers up a bright bouquet of sweet dark berries, black cherries, currant leaf, cherry stone, a hint of cigar smoke and a good base of soil. On the palate the wine is fullish, tangy and vibrant, with a good core, excellent soil signature and grip, moderate tannins and a long, bouncy finish. This is done in the style of one of those more forward examples of Chinon from the early 1980s made for quaffing in the brasseries of Paris, but with a bit more grip and mineral drive on the backend. It is a well-made wine in its style, but it would be more interesting to see this bottling done in a more ambitious manner that acknowledges the more serious side of the grape found at places like Domaine Baudry." |