A friend came over the other day and kindly left a bottle of wine. It looked like a very ordinary honest bottle of French red, the sort that is the everyday lifeblood on so many tables in France.

I noticed that the label said ‘Chinon AOC’’ and that it was from the Loire.

Chinon is basically made from the Cabernet Franc grape (aka Breton). It is a light subtle red mostly used for blending with more robust varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in Bordeaux. It turns out that Cabernet Sauvignon is actually a cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, and so naturally will live in harmony with its one of its parents in a bottle of claret.

The first point of confusion is that Chinon sounds like ‘Chenin’ as in Chenin Blanc, a white wine also from the Loire. But don’t rely on the word ‘Blanc’ to tell you the colour of the wine, for example Chateau Cheval Blanc is a well known Bordeaux where the vineyards are over 50% Cabernet Franc, and so you guessed it is not a white wine as the word 'Blanc' in the name may suggest.

So sorting out our Cabernets, Chevals, Chenins and Chinons can be tricky. The red and white battle lines are distinctly unclear to the novice, and seem to fiendishly merge at times. Having a few glasses too many in France, and with slurring schoolboy French accidentally ordering a bottle of expensive Premier Grand Cru Classe(A) Cheval Blanc at say £1000 instead of Chenin Blanc could be a very expensive mistake.

This Chinon was obviously not expensive but it was absolutely delicious.

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