Epicure
The lovely
Chenonceau Castle
complex fruit. As I taste through
several of their wines, The Boss,
Bruce Springsteen, belts out “Born
in the USA” over the speakers, a
reminder that the Loire is not that
far from America.
Moving east I visited Domaine La
Jarnoteire in the St. Nicholas de
Bourgueil region, where Carine Reze
took me into caves quarried around
990. It’s deep in these caves, some
60 feet underground that they age
their wines in chestnut barrels, a
practice they have done since they
purchased the property in 1945. Of
course it was this exact area that
Cardinal Richelieu, in the 1600s,
decided would be the exclusive place
for Cabernet Franc to be grown. And
the Cardinal was right. The Cabernet
Franc wines of the Bourgueil
(pronounced “bur-goy”) express
themselves as the most complex, at
least to me, of the other Loire Valley
regions. You should not imply from
this that other areas are lesser in
terms of Cabernet France, but that
for my palette Bourgueil was the
most comprehensive and Carine’s
wine show a lovely maturity. “Our
style is for elegance, not powerful
53