CLOS DES CAPUCINS

Chinon, Loire Valley

If you make your way up the hill above the famed and picturesque town of Chinon, you will find a leafy, winding driveway – always shady, as it remains enveloped by pine trees year-round – and eventually, the road will spill out into what at first seems like someone’s large front yard. Only after stepping out of your car, one finally realizes they are in the midst of a Clos, a walled vineyard, with vines surrounding a stately 18th century home and cave in every direction. Chinon’s epic castle looms from across the valley. This particular Clos is Clos des Capucins, a 1.3-hectare idyllic sanctuary of Cabernet Franc run by Fiona Beeston since 2010, with vines ranging from 60-90 years old.

 Beeston, British by birth, but based in France since the mid-1970s, spent time as a cellar hand in Bordeaux before landing a job working under legendary wine merchant Steven Spurrier during his Paris cave’s heyday in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s. Her time working with Spurrier meant many weekend trips out of Paris to taste and buy wine from Vignerons all over France. One of these men turned out to be Charles Jouguet, perhaps the greatest master of Chinon until his retirement in 2005. Following her time working with Spurrier, she went on become a published author and a well-known wine journalist, having written extensively in both French and English. But as they did to many others, Jouguet’s wines left a lasting mark on Beeston, so much so that when she began to look for vines of her own decades later, she couldn’t get a particular property at the top of the hill in Chinon out of her mind. She purchased the vineyard and buildings, which hadn’t had a serious winemaking operation for decades, and released her first vintage of Clos des Capucins in 2011.

 This is by no means a vanity project, however. Beeston is fully involved in the day-to-day winemaking and viticultural operations, with her adult children making their way from Paris in late summer to help with harvest and processing, when more hands are needed. Since taking over, the vines have been farmed Biodynamically, and plowing is kept to a minimum. Beeston makes the wines in a traditional manner, with the grapes left to ferment in a large wooden vat after destemming, and then aged in oak barrels purchased from top Burgundy domaines for up to two years before bottling. Sulpher is added sparingly at bottling and sometimes after racking. The single estate wine is a worthy homage to Jouguet and reflects both the finesse and rusticity found when Chinon is at its best.