Bourgueil, Loire Valley, France
Damien Lorieux is a third-generation vigneron in the hallowed central Loire Valley appellation of Bourgueil. Together with Chinon and Saumur, Bourgueil is the planet’s benchmark for the noble Cabernet Franc grape. Lorieux’s Fruit de Vie cuvée, crafted from Cabernet Franc, is designed specifically to be approachable and immediately delicious. Translucent purple-ruby in the glass, the wine casts aromas of black raspberries, cassis, pipe tobacco, violets, and gravel. Sumptuous, precocious, and charming, the wine stains the palate with chewy black cherry and tayberry fruit followed by hints of tobacco, white pepper, and leafy underbrush. Fine, framing tannins and lovely suggestions of violets, pepper, and menthol sneak in mid-palate and transition the wine to its long, fresh, persistent, soil-driven finish. This is a lovely choice for a year ’round rouge. It drinks smashingly well now and will prove delicious over the next couple of years. Enjoy with pork rillettes, fresh chèvres, rabbit in a mustard sauce, steak frites, grilled eggplant, burgers, and roast poultry.
A June 2022 Newsletter Selection
