Oh friends, it has been too long, I know. All four of you probably spent a collective 8.4 seconds checking this page for something new over the last two weeks. Sorry about that. But look – I come bearing excuses! Like a trip to Northern California, to a land without cell phone reception, let alone internet service, a bad cold that left my taste buds as dead as others’, and an unusually busy period in my non-job workload. All in all, I should have managed a few posts here and there regardless, but a lot of the things I had planned on blogging about simply fell through or I was forced to postpone. But they will come!

I’m back now, though. It’s a little odd to be writing again after the layoff – like taking that first run after a layoff of a few months – you move a little gingerly, not quite in the zone yet. The first run’s a short one, since you don’t want to sprain something your first time back. Feels good to stretch the legs, though. OK, enough running metaphors. Even if nothing else comes together soon, I’ll at least have the cab francs to fall back on – I ordered a whole bushel of them from the Wine Library last week (with free shipping!). It was a great opportunity to nab some wines that just don’t make it out to the West Coast very often, if at all. So we’re packed to the rafters with Bourgueil, Chinon, and Saumur-Champigny. I couldn’t be happier.

So without further ado, here’s this week’s cab franc of the week.

This week’s wine wasn’t actually part of the parcel that came in the mail. I picked up the 2005 Philippe Alliet Chinon at the San Francisco Wine Trading Company, a terrific little store out on Taraval in the city. If you’re ever in the area, I recommend heading out that way to check out their stuff – a lot of interesting French and Italian wines, plus interesting bottles from all over.

Chinon is a town in the Indre-et-Loire area of the Loire region. The Chinon reds are traditionally served a little on the cold side, but not as cold as, say, Lambrusco. The reds from this area are predominantly cabernet franc-based, of course.

Trying the Alliet Chinon for the first time was an interesting experience, because as soon as the cork came out this wine came at me with some serious barnyard action. Not just barnyard, actually. More like…manure. Yep, barnyard, manure, some dark green vegetables…quite the aroma! Almost enough to put one off, except that despite the, uh, eccentricity of the bouquet, it sill seemed very much like a composed aroma, like the wine was intentionally structured this way, as opposed to natural yeasts running amok in the wine and turning each bottle into a farmland crapshoot (no pun intended). There was a force here, and hand that seemed to shape the nose, so to speak, so I decided not to knock any points off for it…but if you’re not into truly rustic bouquets in your wine, I would avoid this bottle. If you see it on the rack at your favorite wine store, pinch your nose as you walk by, just to be safe.

On the palate, though, this wine really shows its stuff, with notes of chocolate and vegetables like asparagus and bell pepper, integrated in that way that only makes sense in a cab franc. It’s a very smooth wine that coats the palate without overpowering it – very pleasurable to hold in the mouth. There are firm tannins here, but I’m not quite sure how much longer it should be kept – it’s drinking very well right now, although I suppose a couple years in the bottle might not hurt it. A great example of a unique wine that expressed a well-composed idea of grape, vintner, and place. It definitely marches to the beat of its own drummer, which is a good thing, even if that drummer could probably use a bath.

All in all, this is a distinctly idiosyncratic wine that I found very enjoyable, and if you like French cab francs, I recommend you seek this bottle out. At around $18, it’s not a huge investment and it’s a great example of the good value coming out of the Loire Valley right now.