Baudry's Best: The 2020 "La Croix Boissée!" And Presenting the New "Les Mollières"

11/7/23 -

It's always a pleasure to offer new arrivals from our friends at Domaine Baudry in Chinon - today we're very happy to offer the beautiful 2020 La Croix Boissée, and - drum roll please - a new wine from the Baudrys, the 2020 "les Mollieres," from terroir that Bernard particularly likes in the commune of Saint-Louans just west of the town of Chinon.

2020 in Chinon - It was another hot and dry spring/summer season as in 2018 and 2019, but adequate rain in August helped the grapes mature properly, retaining good acidities. 2020 is perhaps a more "typical" Loire vintage, as Matthieu Baudry says "the wines are balanced and fresh, a bit less rich than the three precceding vintages. One finds again a more typical Chinon style with bright red fruit aromas, and the "vins de garde" will age gracefully thanks to their freshness and beautiful acidity." 

2020 "La Croix Boissée" Rouge

From a vineyard of shallow sandy clay soils over limestone (Middle Turonian calcaire micacé) high on a south-facing slope above Cravant. 20 to 45 year-old vines.  20-day fermentation in tronconic wooden vats, 24 months of aging in 1 to 4 year-old Burgundy barriques, 9 months in cement, bottled 3 years after harvest. Zero SO2 added until a small dosage at assembly, 10 to 20 mg/L, bottled unfiltered. (Over the years, the Baudrys have moved to a more gentle extraction on this wine and have lengthened the barrel aging, never in new oak.) This is one of the greatest reds of the Loire Valley - at it's best after ten to thirty years of aging, the wine is also quite delicious, though with firm chalky tannins, when young. 2020 promises to be a classic vintage for this wine with long-term aging possible. We always love this wine, so here's an unbiased assessment from The Wine Doctor:

"The aromatics convey a sense of ripe purity, with blackcurrant, black cherry and even a touch of black olives, along with a minerally-chalky edge, and even after bottling it retains this divine complexity, with evolving scents of tar, peony, currant and toast. These aromas translate directly onto the palate, combining these same black fruits with a saline energy. It feels taut, textural yet sinewy and linear, before a long and charged finish. It has a silky sense of cohesion, but it is that long grip of tannins and fabulous complexity that tells you this is one for the ages."

2020 Chinon "Les Mollières"

2020 is the first individual bottling of this particular 1-hectare plot, "Les Mollières," which previously was incorporated into the "Domaine" cuvée. Mollières lies to the west of the town of Chinon, on a high spot having both northern and southern exposure. It is a windy, well-exposed site with heavy clay and yellow limestone soils.  The fruit is destemmed without crushing and moved by gravity into unlined cement vats. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts and without sulfur or temperature control; maceration lasts around two weeks with a daily pumpover and no punchdowns. The wine is aged in concrete tank for 15 months and bottled without filtration. Sulfur usage is minimal. The 2020 Mollières is lighter in body and color that the Croix Boissée and Clos Guillot, from a terroir that gives extremely mineral, earthy wines with delicate fruit. Lovely aromas of raspberry, strawberry, rose and earth; the palate is chalky and pure with vibrant berry fruits, with herbal and mineral notes. No extraction or oak aging, just beautiful expression of this classic Chinon terroir. (In our experience, the very earthy and mineral wines from this type of terroir open up beatifully with age, but it's a bit too early to make any predictions - we've asked the Baudrys for their advice.)

We're honored to offer the wines of this superb domain. All aspects of winemaking at Domaine Baudry are performed with the utmost intelligence and care: superb organic farming with their own composts, careful manual harvests, vinifications perfectly suited to each terroir with zero or minimal added SO2 - only a tiny adddition as needed before bottling -  and aging in carefully chosen cement or barrels, with no new oak in the cellar.

Low net prices on today's offer, for those wanting just a few bottles. Wines should be available for pick-up or shipping on Tuesday 11/14. Quantities are limited.