2021 Nicolas Reau 'L'enfant Terrible'

Place: Anjou - Loire Valley, France

Variety: Cabernet Franc

Farming: Organic

Nicolas was a jazz and blues pianist until he was twenty-two at which age he swapped scales for secateurs. He studied winemaking and viticulture at Montreuil then supplemented those studies with more at Bordeaux. He now farms 5.5ha of cabernet franc, chenin blanc and grolleau at his estate, Clos de Treilles.

100-year-old vines(!) are aged in old large wood for 18 months then bottled without sulphur(!) in Reau’s téte de cuvée l’Enfant Terrible. It’s trite to say, but this is undeniably Burgundian in proportion—so elegant, fine and composed. One of the finest cabernet francs you will ever drink.