2020 Pascal et Alain Lorieux Chinon Theleme Loire Valley 750 ml

“You HAVE to taste this.”

We get plenty of entreaties like that, but few come from respected authors and podcasters like our friend Elizabeth Schneider, our partner in the Wine for Normal People club. So we took her advice.

Tracking down the elusive wine from her message took weeks. But once the Pascal et Alain Lorieux Thélème Chinon was finally in our glasses, we knew we needed to grab as much as we could for our members. 

This marvelously aromatic Chinon is the ultimate food wine, and perhaps one of the most criminally under-celebrated red wines in France. With aromas of blackberries, herbs, pencil lead, and tea leaves previewing a super-juicy palate built on graceful tannins, it earned 94-point Cellar Selection honors from Wine Enthusiast.

Chinon is beloved within the wine industry, but it remains a bit off the radar of the wine mainstream. By far the richest of the Loire’s regal reds, great Chinons like this 2020 Thélème bring a succulence and depth of flavor that is often reminiscent of Right Bank Bordeaux—and they bring it for a relative bargain. 

Alain and Pascal Lorieux are fourth-generation vintners who merged their family’s farms in 1993. Since Alain’s retirement ten years ago, Thélème—from 50-year-old vines—has become Pascal’s special signature. Grown on prized clay-limestone tuffeau (tufa) soils on the banks of the Vienne River (a Loire tributary), the wine delivers the perfumed aromas, silky tannins, and powerful vibrancy that make Chinon one-of-a-kind.

The 2020 Expression is 100% Cabernet Franc, hand-harvested and macerated for five to six weeks to extract flavor. It’s the kind of pure expression that we crave on our days off, and we’re thrilled to share it with you.