Bernard Baudry, 2017 Chinon ‘La Croix Boissée’
Domaine Bernard Baudry is one of the Chinon appellation's most beloved producers. Based in Cravant-Les Côteaux, the domaine has about 32 hectares of organically farmed vines across the communes of Cravant-les-Côteaux and Chinon, with about 29 of those being Cabernet Franc. What sets this estate apart from many in the Chinon appellation is their strong focus on single lieu-dit wines and the terroir expressions from their sites and soils.
Among these wines are the Les Granges and Les Grézeaux from two very different terroirs on the alluvial terrace in Cravant-Les-Côteaux, Les Mollières, which is the newest addition to the line-up from a limestone parcel up on the plateau in Chinon, Le Clos Guillot from a lieu-dit on the premier côte in Chinon, and finally the jewel in the crown, so to speak, La Croix Boissée, which is in Cravant-les-Côteaux.
La Croix Boissée is one of the Chinon appellation's most prized and historic lieux-dits. In fact, it was the first vineyard to be "elevated" to special status in 2018 with the creation of a monograph, which goes into great details about the vineyard's history, environmental factors and terroir, as well as human factors that influence this site. In the interest of time, I will touch on some of the history and terroir of this lieu-dit, but I will supplement this video with a longer written post for those that are interest in learning a lot more.
Many centuries ago, this site was once a troglodyte hamlet of the same name located at the crossroads of many ancient paths, and archaeological research has unearthed evidence of viticultural and winemaking activities with presses and vats carved out of the tuffeau limestone dating to around the middle ages. This place was first mentioned on the Cassini map of the Kingdom of France dating to the mid-1700s and later on the Napoleonic register of 1832, and up until the time of the first world war there were 12 inhabitants registered in this tiny hamlet.
The name La Croix Boissée has two origins. First, for the stone cross that stood mid-slope of the lieu-dit which marked the resting place for people to stop during religious pilgrimages through the area. The second from the ritual of placing boxwood twigs along a procession for people to walk over during Easter Sunday celebrations.
From a viticultural perspective, the lieu-dit today spans 17 hectares of which 13 hectares are planted to vine, with about 10.5 hectares of Cabernet Franc and 2.5 hectares of Chenin Blanc. It is situated on a pronounced south-facing slope between 50-80m above sea level set back from the Vienne River about 2.5km, with the Arçon forest to the north, which helps to block out the cooler winds that would come in from the northeast. The slope has a slightly convex shape, which allows for very good drainage and increased sun exposure to all parts of the vineyard throughout the day. And all of these factors combine would make this a warm site for Chinon.
In terms of soils, we find three distinct terroir units across this lieu-dit. At the top of the vineyard, there is a narrow band of the Upper Turoninan yellow tuffeau chalk. This chalk is a little bit harder and less porous, and can experience some water stress in drier years.
In the middle to upper portion of the slope is a wider band Middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk, known locally as tuffeau de bourré. This chalk is softer, a bit more porous, so has a bit better water retention. Across the sections where we find the yellow and white tuffeaux, the topsoil is generally more shallow, with textures ranging from sandier in some parts to more sandy-silt and silty-clay in others.
Finally, towards the southeast corner of the vineyard there is a small portion colluvium, which is essentially eroded materials of the two chalks that have accumlated over a long period of time. Here the topsoil is deeper, with a greater mix of clay, silt and sand, and have good water holding capacity.
Perhaps it goes without saying with lieu-dit of this size, but Bernard Baudry does not own all the parcels here, rather there are about 7 vignerons who have vines at La Croix Boissée. For Bernard Baudry, they have nearly 3 hectares in total at the centre of the lieu-dit, with about 2 hectares of Cabernet Franc and 0.9 hectares of Chenin Blanc. The Cabernet Franc vines are planted mid-slope, so there is a slightly deeper topsoil that is a clayey-sand texture, but only about 50 to 80cm of a stony topsoil that sits atop the Middle Turoninan white tuffeau chalk. Their vines are 15 to 40 years of age. The domaine acquired these parcels in 1993, and the Cabernet Franc was initially bottled as the cuvée signature in the 1993, 94 and 95 vintages, and then they began using the name La Croix Boissée to denote this bottling in 1996.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit is all hand-harvested, hand-sorted, destemmed and not crushed. The fermentation is in cement tanks with indigenous yeast, with the fermentation temperature reaching a maximum of 30C. Matthieu will do a light pumping over for about 10 minutes once every other day, and the total time on skins is about 3 weeks. After the post fermentation maceration, the free run and press wine will be aged in older barrels, smaller Bordeaux barrels from St-Emilion, for 2 years, following 9 months in cement prior to bottling.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Bernard Baudry
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Cravant-les-Côteaux
Lieu-Dit: La Croix Boissée
Soil: 50-80cm clayey-sand over the Middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk
Alcohol: 13.0%
