Domaine Olga Raffault

Savigny-en-Véron, Chinon, Loire Valley, France

Biography forthcoming!

Critical praise:

Benchmark Producer: “This 25-hectare property has long shown the more profound side of Chinon, and leveraged a deeper sense of history. Olga Raffault owned the estate through much of the first half of the twentieth century; her son Jean was the longtime winemaker, and their work lives on, literally, in that vintages dating to the 1970’s are still fresh and available to buy. Olga's granddaughter Sylvie Raffault took over in the early 2000’s with her husband, Eric de la Vigerie, and they run the domaine in a very hands-on manner with their son Arnaud, farming organically and doing all the winemaking. Much of the aging is done in steel, including old dairy tanks, with mostly larger old wood (not just oak but chestnut) used for some top wines and in warmer vintages. Their parcels are largely in the Véron countryside, nestled between the Loire and Vienne rivers, where the land is gentler and more alluvial than upriver near Chinon.

“In addition to an estate red Chinon from bought grapes [ La Fraîch’ ], Les Barnabés comes from vines grown on a mix of sand and gravel-the soils not diminishing a charcoal-and-burnt-herb ferocity that tends to mark the Raffault wines. Les Peuilles is from clay-silica soils in Beaumont-en-Veron; it's curiously less structured and marked by a crushed-rose fragrance. Les Picasses is the classic, from clay-limestone near Beaumont; given extra élevage and always rugged with that Raffault signature, it shows tar and candied violets and is never friendly when young but always rewards later, after a decade or more. And the musky La Singulière takes a fifty-year-old portion of Les Picasses for wood aging and shows its own but in a classy way. There's also quintessential Chinon Rosé and Champ-Chenin, their Chinon Blanc from a single hectare; it's quiet but wound-up in the Raffault style, with ripe quince and an intense mineral finish.”  

— Jon Bonné, The New French Wine 

“Still one of the finest wine producers in Chinon, Domaine Olga Raffault farms 25 hectares of Cabernet Franc and a bit of Chenin Blanc. Certified organic since 2014, the domaine is today lead by Olga's granddaughter, Sylvie Raffault, with her husband Eric de la Vigerie and their son Arnaud de la Vigerie. […] All the wines are based on destemmed fruit that is macerated and fermented for up to four weeks in stainless steel and aged in 30- to 70-hectoliter foudres for up to two years, except for the fresh and floral Barnabés, which ages in stainless steel vats and is released the next year. The finest wine is Les Picasses—a robust and age-worthy classic of the appellation that established the reputation of the domaine. The 1964, which I was lucky to taste, is great proof of the exceptional quality of the terroir as well as of the winemaking skills of the Olga Raffault team at that time. However, Les Peuilles is a highly delicate and elegant alternative that doesn't need to be aged that long. The more international interpretation from the oldest clay-limestone parcels of the domaine is La Singulière, which is aged in barriques for two or three years. The Chenin des Picasses l'Or d'Olga is a rich, round and textured, very intense and mouth-filling white Chinon from the clay-limestone slopes of this great terroir.” 

— Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. August 5th, 2021