Marc Brédif Chinon is one of the great bargains in the world of Loire Valley reds these days. The wine is made from vineyards planted on gravelly soils and raised solely in stainless steel tanks. The wine offers up a deep and refined bouquet of cassis, black cherries, cigar ash, tree bark, gravelly soil tones and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, complex and elegant in profile, with a fine core of fruit, lovely soil undertow and grip, fine-grained, buried tannins, lovely focus and a long, very nicely balanced finish.