Patrick Baudouin, 2017 Anjou Rouge ‘La Fresnaye’
Having spent his childhood and much of his adult life in Paris, a life as a vigneron wasn't the initial nor obvious path for Patrick Baudouin. But it was the wines of the Foucault brothers of Clos Rougeard and Marc Angeli that inspired Patrick chose the path of the vine and return to his native Anjou in 1990 to establish his domaine with the parcels that his great-grandparents had acquired back in the 1920s. Following the philosophies of traditional viticulture and winemaking and eschewing modern techniques as the Foucaults did, Patrick quickly cemented himself alongside the likes of Jo Pithon, Vincent Ogereau and others, as a new, young band of vignerons leading a renaissance in the Coteau du Layon region that would eventually spread across all of Anjou.
Patrick Baudouin's domaine today is comprised of about 13.5 hectares of vines, the majority of which are a planted with Chenin Blanc, with about 3 hectares of Cabernet Franc, which takes the leading role in two of the domaine's reds, their Côteaux d'Ardenay and La Fresnaye, and plays a supporting role in the cuvée Les Touches. Their vineyard parcels are dotted across 3 communes in the western part of Anjou, namely Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné, Rochefort-sur-Loire and Chaudefonds-sur-Layon, as well as a small parcel of Chenin Blanc in Savennières. The domaine and its vineyards have been certified organic since 2002.
It has been some time since I've featured a red from Anjou, and there is good reason for that. While Cabernet Franc is still the most planted variety in the Anjou-Saumur region, accounting for about 41% of plantings, this is where Chenin Blanc takes centre stage, and Cabernet Franc needs to be planted on very select sites to be successful for red wines production. So why might this be? Well, it ultimately comes down to the growing environment and the soils.
In this part of Anjou, we are in the rain shadow of the Haut-Bocage Vendée, which was part of an ancient mountain range that was once as high as the Alps, and over hundred of millions of years it has weathered down to just a couple hundred metres in most place, but that elevation is enough to help block out the precipitation from the Atlantic. Western Anjou only receives about 600 to 700m of precipitation annually, making this one of the driest areas in the Loire.
In terms of soils, here in Western Anjou, around the village of Thouarcé, is where the "old rocks" of the Massif Armoricain take over from the limestone soils of the Paris Basin. These soils, collectively known as Anjou Noir, are a predominantly a complex array of schists, as well as some slates and sandstones, all of which are these dark, dense, brittle rocks, with poor water retention capacity, particularly compared to the limestone soils that dominate to the east.
Cabernet Franc as a grape variety is not drought tolerant, and the combination of this aired, well-draining soils and the lower rainfall, means that Cabernet Franc can struggle and suffer from hydric stress. This can lead to an imbalance in the vine contributing to excessive pyrazines, and because of Cabernet Franc's structure and inherent rusticity, this hydric stress amplify Cabernet Franc's rusticity, by giving a resulting wine with more rustic or 'strict' tannins. So, all this is to say, site selection becomes quite critical.
So, drilling down to where the parcels are for this wine, we are in the commune of St-Aubin-de-Luigné. This commune is one of 6 principle communes that make up the Coteaux du Layon appellation. It is unique in that it has vineyards on both sides of the Layon River, which means that from a geological perspective we have a very complex array of soils across this commune. The north side of the commune is dominated by the St-Georges series of schists, as well as Carboniferous sandstone, while on the south side of the Layon, or the left bank, this is dominated by Brioverian schist, with a narrow vein of St-Georges schist that runs through the centre of the southern part of the commune.
This cuvée is coming from about 0.9 hectares of vines located in the lieu-dit of La Fresnaye, which is about 1.5km south of the Layon River. The parcels are at an elevation of around 58m above sea level, and they are oriented ever so slightly north. In terms of soil, about half of the vineyard is influenced by St-Georges schists, which is a grey schist, and there's a shallow topsoil that is a clay-sandy silt mix before we hit the schist bedrock. While the other half of the vineyard we find colluvium, which is soils derived through erosion, likely of schistous origin, but these soils are deeper, so we have a similar topsoil that is a clay-sandy silt mix, followed by a subsoil of the same, which would give the Cabernet Franc vines in the upper portion a little bit more water reserves to draw from. About half the vines were planted in 1997, and the oldest block was planted in 1950.
From a winemaking perspective, Patrick take a low interventionist approach in the cellar. The fruit was hand-harvested and destemmed. The fermentation was in tank with indigenous yeast, and maceration was via infusion, with the total time on skins about 30 days. The wine is aged in older Burgundian oak barrels for about 9 months. Minimal sulfur is used throughout the winemaking process and before bottling.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine Patrick Baudouin
Appellation: Anjou Rouge
Commune: Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné
Lieux-Dits: La Fresnaye (La Fresnaie)
Soils: clay-sandy silt (limon-argilo-sableux) over grey schist (St-Georges series), colluvium
Alcohol: 12.5%
