2022 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Granges

The new vintage is bright and perfumed, packed with succulent cherry fruit and finishing with crunchy freshness alongside a lick of mineral and dried chilli—a fine release, and just what you want from this type of agile, juicy Cabernet Franc. As Chinon’s most famous son, François Rabelais, once wrote: “Drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you.”

Organic. 100% Cabernet Franc. Les Granges is the Baudry family’s vin de bistro—a delicious, entry-level Cabernet Franc designed for early drinking. It comes mostly from the estate’s younger vines, planted between 1985 and 1988 in the alluvial gravel soils of the terraces beside the river Vienne. The fruit is picked by hand and coolly ferments for two weeks in cement tanks, before being raised for seven to 10 months, also in cement.
 

Domaine Bernard Baudry
Bernard Baudry is one of the stars of Chinon. A graduate of the Lycée de Beaune, Baudry created his 30-hectare estate from family-owned parcels and additionally purchased land. He quickly rose to prominence in the ’80s for his intense and textured Chinon. Today he is considered one of the great pioneers of Chinon’s modern era. Son Matthieu joined his father in 2000 and continues to find new ways to progress his family’s wine to new heights of silky, perfumed elegance and depth. Sure, the father’s wines and choice of vineyards lit the torch—yet the son’s progressive, outward-looking philosophy in the vineyard and cellar has taken things to a new level.

These are complex, seductively textured wines that nonetheless retain the refreshing, spicy, crunchy nuances and powdery tannins that speak so loudly of Chinon. From low-yielding, organically managed vines grown on poor limestone slopes, Cabernet Franc can capture subtle shifts in terroir in an almost Burgundian manner. Baudry is arguably the leading Chinon producer in this respect, in that he makes so many fine, terroir-specific wines. Despite the current challenges posed by the changing climate, thanks to intense, artisanal farming here, this grower’s vines are revelling in sunny benevolence. “I don’t have to drop as much fruit these days,” opines Baudry, “We’ve almost forgotten about those Cabernet Franc green pepper flavours. The textbooks might need to be updated.”

“While they are sometimes labelled traditionalists, I find them to be more naturalists. Everything here is organic, harvested by hand and bottled without fining or filtration.” Joel B. Payne, Vinous

Les Granges is a lighter-bodied wine made for early drinking from grapes grown on gravel and sand, which makes for a lip-smacking bright and lively wine. Le Domaine hails from Baudry’s high-sited vines, from a plateau above Chinon’s première côte: the lion’s share of the fruit comes from old vines (around 35 years old on average), planted on sandy, limestone-rich soils, while 20-30% is drawn from slightly younger vines on gravelly soils. Les Grézeaux is drawn from the Estate’s oldest vines, aged between 40 and 60 years, planted on a gravelly terroir over limestone and clay on the Sonnay plateau above Cravant (in front of the Baudry cellar).

In recent vintages, the quality of this producer’s two top cuvées, cropped from the limestone slopes rising from the Vienne River, has moved from benchmark into the game-changing territory. La Croix Boisée, hails from a parcel of 30- to 50-year-old vines on very chalky, white limestone soils above Baudry’s cellars in Cravant-les-Côteaux. Here, the south-facing aspect, altitude and soil produce Chinon’s longest-living and most elegant wines. Finally, Clos Guillot is another single vineyard situated on a steep, southeast-facing slope in Chinon with soils of clay, chalk and yellow limestone (known locally as tuffeau). Matthieu Baudry describes Le Clos Guillot as a “very pure expression of Chinon.” These are totally unique wines of place, and some of the most interesting reds we import.

There are now two excellent whites in the range. Chinon Blanc is a rare bird at the best of times; Chenin Blanc accounts for only 2% of the total Chinon appellation. Baudry farms under two hectares, and there’s good reason La Revue du Vin de France has labelled the wines “the model of great Chinon Blanc.” In most cases, Chinon’s white grapes have been shunted to the less favourable sites. At this address, all the whites are drawn from the sirloin cut of Chinon’s finest limestone terroirs.