2011 Bernard Baudry "Les Grézeaux" Chinon

The vines at Les Grézeaux are now 65 years old, growing on 7.4 acres of gravelly clay. That stony soil helps the old vines create a racy franc, a deep and saturated wine that feels open rather than weighty and concentrated, focusing attention on the floral notes of cherries and the pith around the pit—stony in the way a cherry pit is stony—its bold intensity intriguingly shaded, then opening up with light. The beautiful bright color of the wine offers further assurance that these vines did well in 2011.