Most independent wine shops have a ‘house palate’. Any given wine set is at least partly a reflection of the people purchasing the wines, because at the end of the day it is much easier to sell a wine we might buy ourselves. At L&E, the house palate is more or less whatever Rodolphe Raffault is making. His wines are never particularly flashy, the farming and winemaking are meticulous but not avant garde, but Raffault wines always manage to be just right. This is prototypical Chinon: Cabernet Franc that has not evolved far beyond the stony clay soil the grapes grow in. There’s violets here too, white pepper and pipe smoke, dried raspberries and dried roses. The texture is tense with mineral extract, taut with tannins soaked in notes of pitch black cherry, pepper, clay and tomato leaf. The texture is powerful but not heavy, and will complement a range of pork stews, squash quiches or mushroom risottos.