Riffault's Raudonas

It's always good to have friends over who are into natural wine as you can open bottles that might freak others out. Nevertheless I confess we opened Sébastian Riffault's 2008 Raudonas Sancerre last night with some trepidation. As I've mentioned before before some of his wines teeter on the edge of undrinkability but his reds clearly less so than his whites.

This was just amazing. A sensuous silky-textured pinot noir that you'd be ecstatic to come across in Burgundy. Every mouthful was a thrill. We drank it with a delicate dish of chicken in white wine with summer vegetables - carrots, turnips, broad beans and peas - with a swirl of cream stirred in at the end (into the casserole, not the wine, obviously ... )

Doug Wregg of Les Caves de Pyrène says in one of his newsletters that Raudonas is Lithuanian for ruddy which sounds wildly improbable but who am I to naysay him? Only Doug could dig that kind of stuff out. About 20-22€ in France so about £25 here I'd guess. I'll confirm once I've got Caves to confirm the price.

* Actually it's £22.44 - still not exactly cheap but worth every penny.