Domaine Olga Raffault

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

History & Ownership

Domaine Olga Raffault is a benchmark estate in Chinon, long admired for classic, age-worthy Cabernet Franc rooted in tradition. Its story begins in the region’s smallholding culture, where vines were worked alongside vegetables and livestock. In 1931, Olga married Pierre Raffault and farmed asparagus with a few hectares of vines in Savigny en Véron. After Pierre’s death in 1947, Olga took full control, gave her name to the domaine, and quietly reshaped its future. With the crucial support of Ernest Zeinninger, who devoted his life to the vineyards after the war, the estate gradually shifted its focus fully to viticulture.

The domaine’s modern reputation was secured under Olga’s son Jean, who introduced vineyard bottlings and placed Les Picasses on the label in 1983, followed by the outstanding 1989 and 1990 vintages. Today, the estate is run by Olga’s granddaughter Sylvie Raffault, alongside her husband Eric de la Vigerie and their son Arnaud, with Jean still present in the vineyards, ensuring continuity rather than change.

Vineyards & Terroir

The estate farms around 25 hectares of vineyards, almost entirely Cabernet Franc, with a small but important parcel of Chenin Blanc. All vineyards are certified organic and worked with a strong respect for tradition.

The heart of the domaine lies in Savigny en Véron, a narrow triangle of land between the Vienne and the Loire. The surface soils here are sandy and alluvial, shaped by the rivers, but beneath lies limestone that gives the wines far more structure and aging potential than their light textures first suggest.

Among the estate’s parcels, Les Picasses stands apart. Lying north of Chinon and east of Avoine in the Puys du Chinonais, it is a gentle south-facing slope, descending from 65 to 50 metres above sea level. The soils change as you move downhill, from yellow Upper Turonian limestone at the top, calcareous shell-bearing sands through the mid-slope, and a narrow seam of Middle Turonian white chalk at the base.

Viticulture & Winemaking

Work in the vineyards is organic and hands-on, with careful pruning and manual harvesting. Parcels are picked and vinified separately, respecting the differences between sites and soils.

In the cellar, fermentations are carried out mainly in stainless steel, with gentle punch-downs and close temperature control. Aging varies by cuvée, from stainless steel to large oak foudres and, for select wines, smaller barrels. Sulphur is used sparingly, generally only at bottling.

Grape Varieties & Key Wines

Cabernet Franc is the clear backbone of the domaine, supported by a small but expressive presence of Chenin Blanc. Their main wines include:

Chinon “Les Barnabés”
Chinon “Les Peuilles”
Chinon “Les Picasses" (estate’s most iconic and age-worthy wine)
Chinon “La Singulière” (a small-production, oak-aged expression from Les Picasses)
Chinon Blanc “Champ-Chenin”
Chinon Blanc “L’Or d’Olga”
Chinon Rosé

Critical & Professional Recognition

Domaine Olga Raffault, especially Les Picasses, is widely regarded as a benchmark for Chinon, praised by Decanter, Wine Advocate, Chris Kissack, Jancis Robinson, and Roger Voss.

Why This Producer Matters Why This Producer Matters

Olga Raffault appeals to those seeking traditional Chinon Cabernet Franc that reflects both site and vintage. The domaine stands out for certified organic farming, a focus on single-vineyard expression, and a cellar approach that emphasizes careful, hands-on winemaking and age-worthy wines.

Critical praise

“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, 'Benchmark Producer'.

 

“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.

"Les Picasses is arguably the most renowned vineyard in the Chinon appellation. There are of course, a few other contenders for this title which deserve some mention.

First, there is the renowned Clos de l’Echo, a monopole in the hands of Couly-Dutheil since Noah stepped down from the ark (well, since the early 20th century, anyway). This historic vineyard sits just behind the royal fortress and comes complete with its own traditions and mythology, so is surely a contender. My thoughts also turn to La Croix Boissée, a highly regarded south-facing site shared between a number of growers, their number including Bertrand Sourdais of Domaine de Pallus and Pascal Lambert, among many others, but in terms of reputation, it seems fair to say they are led by Matthieu Baudry of Bernard Baudry.

Like La Croix Boissée, Les Picasses is also exploited by several vignerons, including Rodolphe Raffault of Jean-Maurice Raffault, Jean de Bonnaventure of Château de Coulaine, and Martine Budé of Clos la Niverdière. In fact, at the last count, there were 17 vignerons tending vines here, although only a handful bottle the wine as a cuvée parcellaire, many choosing to blend the fruit into another cuvées.

Having said all that, the fact that Les Picasses can be discussed in the same breath as the Clos de l’Echo and La Croix Boissée is arguably down to just one domaine, ran for many years by one widowed vigneron, Olga Raffault.

Les Picasses sits on a gentle south-facing slope running from 65 down to 50 metres above sea level. At the top of the slope there is the yellow limestone of the Upper Turonian, and on the midslope, there is millarges, a calcareous, shell-bearing sand which is very typical of the Chinon appellation. Finally, at the foot of the slope, there is a sliver of white chalk from the Middle Turonian. The arrangement is quite similar to the limestone slopes on the Chinon côte around Cravant-les-Coteaux, or indeed the very upper reaches of the Bourgueil vineyard, which perhaps explains the site’s appeal." - Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor