Claire et Floret Bejon Les Bournais Cabernet Franc 2020

Country: France

Region: Loire

Type: Red Wine

Grape: Cabernet Franc

For the past few years Claire and Florent Bejon have quietly gone about making some of the best wines in all of the Loire from their little cave in the village of Saint-Germain-sur-Vienne. Although the two have been growing grapes and producing wine for the past two decades, until recent years their production was tiny and the wines almost impossible to find. Florent spent the past few decades traveling around the region helping other vignerons bottle their wines without additives.

Claire and Florent now farm a total of five hectares of vines spread amongst tiny parcels on either bank of the Vienne just to the west of Chinon. The vines are on average fifty years old and planted over complex and varied soils made up of clay, limestone and a large amount of silex, lending the wines structure and minerality. The majority of the vines are planted with Cabernet Franc, but they also farm a little over half a hectare of Chenin Blanc. All work in the vineyard is done organically and by hand. The wines are made in an old cellar dug into the limestone and here the Bejons display a real lightness of touch, with an emphasis on long, gentle macerations and a proper élevage in a mix of old casks, demijohns and earthenware jars. Built on a foundation of pristine fruit, their wines are striking in their delicacy, purity and aromatics.

Les Bournais comes from a one-hectare parcel of Cabernet Franc planted over heavy clay and limestone in Ligré, where the vines are fifty years old. This spent two months macerating as whole bunches before being pressed to terracotta amphora for a year of élevage. Full-bodied, with red berry and woodsy notes, sweet tannins and exceptional balance.