Bernard Baudry is a master of terroir-driven winemaking in the Loire Valley. The Baudry vineyards span a range of soil types —yielding fascinatingly diverse expressions of the same grape.
In the vineyard, the soils have been ploughed since the domain was established. ‘We have never used herbicides,’ says Winemaker Matthieu. ‘We plough the soils and work organically. Herbicides are, for me, the enemy of terroir expression,’ he says. ‘It takes 10 years for a vine to get a deep root system. If you use herbicides you don’t help the vine to get nutrition.’
The Baudry wines are the perfect remedy for the oceans of standardised wines that exist in the world today. They are totally unique wines of place, and some of the most interesting wines we import. They have aromatics evocative of berries, violets and pencil with a juicy, silky personality in the mouth that keeps you coming back and have richness yet are intensely savoury at the same time.
“While they are sometimes labelled traditionalists, I find them to be more naturalists, everything here is Biodynamic, harvested by hand and bottles without fining and filtration, in any case, theirs is a style that I admire, they make Cabernet Franc taste as suave and succulent as Pinot Noir.”
Vinous Media
2020 Chinon Les Granges $27.95 per bottle – 6 packs & 12’s.
Dense and bright with focused bright red fruit, herbs, savoury umami and spice. A lovely suave texture that carries with it beautiful old World concentration and elegance. Nice acidity with some grip on the tannins. Has freshness and considerable elegance. A remarkable wine with a lovely price tag.
2020 Chinon Blanc $37.95 per bottle – 6 pack maximum
The 2020 Chinon Blanc from Baudry offers up a very promising bouquet of apple, chalky soil tones, sweet quince and orange peel, citrus blossoms and a touch of white pepper. On the palate the wine is pure, focused and full-bodied, with a superb beam of acidity, fine balance and grip and a long complex finish. This is certainly approachable today, but it will be significantly better with at least a few years of bottle age on it.
2020 Chinon Rose $29.95 per bottle – 6 pack maximum
Baudry produces one of the most elegant Chinon rosés: voluptuous and generous with minerality, stone fruit and subtle white flower notes. This wine is fermented in cement barrels and undergoes partial malolactic fermentation giving it a well rounded, creamy texture.
The Baudry wines all speak for themselves and offer the drinker something truly special.