Where has all the Chinon gone?

Gaw, I hate to say it, but I'm really starting to miss Chinon. We haven't been there since November, for the bottling of Yvon Blondin's 2004, and were with Philippe at the time, in Philippe's somewhat small car, with Philippe's weekend luggage and heavy work briefcase in the somewhat small trunk, and with Philippe's stash of Chinon. So we managed to bring back some measly twelve bottles for ourselves. Which were gone before the new year.

Of course, in the meantime we had aged Chinons with Arnaud's dad, committed the rank infanticide of opening a 2004 Philippe Alliet "Coteau de Noiré" in December when Arnaud's mom was in town on business, and purchased a couple of Charles Joguets for mealtime consumption.

But I have not had a drop of the great Ligerian cabernet franc in at least a month and a half. I blinked my eyes today and realized I am in withdrawal!

Coming home late from work last night, I knew we would be eating the other half of my quiche provençale. A nice rustic red might be a fine thing to drink alongside. (Not to mention that we had some pâté de campagne I counted well and fully on cutting into before the quiche was warmed.) Wouldn't a bottle of Chinon be just nice?

But in our cellar the only Chinon in sight are the remaining two bottles of 2002 C. & P. Breton Chinon "Les Picasses". This wine is becoming hard to find and I'm too interested in seeing how it ages to sacrifice one of the two until I can safely get more. So no-go.

We opened a delicious southwest wine, instead, which had some of the brambly, rustic quality I had been hankering for - the great, well-made 2004 Philippe Teulier Marcillac "Lo Sang del Païs". We drank it down. We appreciated it.

But the only true solution is to hit a wine store today. So I'll be off, soon, in search of that elusive, Rabelaisian drink that for me is certainly a deep-seated wellspring of pleasure...