Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grézeaux 2017

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Les Grézeaux is concentrated, its body is dense yet silky, thanks to the gravels in its soil. It can age 10 years, and a lot longer in good vintages.

About Bernard Baudry

“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. In any case, theirs is a style that I admire: they make cabernet franc taste as suave and succulent as pinot noir.” Joel B. Payne, Vinous

“Bernard Baudry is, here and now, one of the leading domaines of the appellation. Some would say the leading domaine of the appellation. The wines are of exceptionally high quality…” Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor

About Cabernet Franc

In Australia Cabernet Franc is often referred to as a weed making green insipid wines. As always there are exceptions. Cabernet Franc from the Chinon is another beast altogether. More a beauty really. The wines can have incredible delicacy, perfume, and thirst-quenching character. Silky textures and layered complexity come from the best wines. They often have a slight pencil shaving character that sits wonderfully in the wines. For anyone who may not be aware of Cabernet Franc‘s wily charms or who believes that this grape incapable of producing fabulous wines, Chinon is the place to look!

In the Vineyard

The Domain has 32 hectares of vineyards spread across the AOC Chinon, in Cravant les Coteaux and Chinon. The grape is grown primarily Cabernet Franc (90%) plus a small production of Chenin Blanc (about 10%). The vineyards are located on very varied terroirs of gravel in the plain, limestone clay on coteau and sandy limestones plateaus. This diversity offers us the possibility of applying piecemeal winemaking.

The vineyard has always been maintained according to environmentally friendly methods (no chemical weed killers) guided by observation and common sense depending on the climatic conditions of the year.

The entire vineyard is now conducted in organic farming since 2006.
A compost that we maintain ourselves based on cow manure and straw helps rebalance the organic matter in our soils. Phytosanitary interventions are mainly limited to the use of copper, sulfur and natural plants such as horsetail and nettles.

They control the growth of the vine by partial disbudding but we are looking at what is the vine find itself its own production of balance according to the richness of the soil and climate of the year.

The 2017 Vintage at Bernard Baudry

Light frosts in April came close to destroying the buds in the vineyard once more. Only the plateaus north-west of Chinon suffered severe damage. Fortunately, the vines in Cravant were spared.

Later in spring the weather was particularly fine and warm. Ample rainfall in May did not affect blooming, which was early (around May 28), and relatively even.

Temperatures got higher in late August and the weather stayed nice and sunny despite a little rain early in September.

So we had a very early harvest and the first grapes were clipped on September 20 for the Cabernet Franc and September 14 for the Chenin! Ripeness was quite even and sorting in the vineyards was easy due to the quality of the grapes.

2017 is a generous vintage in several respects. First of all, the yields in Cravant were back to normal. The loss in the western areas of Chinon amounted to 20 per cent of a normal harvest. We rarely fill the wine-press with our Chenin, but the 2017 yields were quite interesting, with lovely clusters.

Finally, the generosity of the 2017 vintage is conveyed by fruit-forward, enjoyable red wines with soft tannins. The wines in our range are easy to identify thanks to the diversity of our terroirs and can be enjoyed young. Yet these wines are rich; 2017 was a warm year and sometimes reminds us of the lovely 2009 vintage.

It isn’t easy to speculate on the ageing potential of the full-bodied wines in this vintage; and they’re so easy to drink, soon after bottling, that one could be tempted not to wait.

Where in the world is Bernard Baudry?

The Loire Valley is scattered over 175,000 acres stretching from the Atlantic Ocean across to central France. Cover such a large region it is natural that it’s been broken down into sub-regions that specialise in the growing of specific varieties. Baudry is in the middle-Loire in the village of Chinon.

The Loire Valley Wine Group produced a quirky little primer for the regions, varieties and styles produced across the Loire Valley.