TN: 2016 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grézeaux

WINE TALK
21

The 2015 Guillot is sensational, probably the best Baudry has made since I started trying his wines vintages 2005 forward.

22

The funniest thing. As I am reading this I have another tab open with this wine available for 18 € a bottle. [oops.gif]

23

All. Day. Long.

I reloaded after trying it, so did a double order. And I normally only buy 3-4 of the Guillot per year, loading up more in the Grezeaux and Boissee.

24

Thanks for the well timed recommendation!

25

Thanks to free shipping offered now by a lot of merchants, I have access to the following to try and no need to buy a certain amount to avoid shipping costs. What would you recommend to get a good feel for Baudry (I am only familiar with Thierry Germain and Clos Rougeard + one bottling of 2013 Joguet):

Grezeaux 2014 @34 EUR
Grezeaux 2015 @16.5 EUR (not sure why the difference with 2014)
Croix Boissée 2017 @24.65 EUR
Croix Boissée 2015 @26 EUR
Guillot 2016 @21.60

26

The 2014 is Magnum

Unfortunately the Boisee (red and white) is not available in magnums
It is the polished Chinon. I guess even Leve would like it pileon

27

Ha, Leve would call them “charming” and rate them an 89! [wow.gif]

Joz-Euro-F,

I would get them all. Seriously. Solid wines, solid vintages, nice pricing.

If you cannot hoard them all, for your first, I’d go with the 2015 Croix Boissee and try it over 2 days.

I’d really be tempted to - no, actually, I would - buy that Grezeaux magnum and forget about it until 2030 or more. Grezeaux, IMHO, is the cuvee, in classic years like 2014, that needs more time than the others.

28

Jozef, the Croix Boissée prices are excellent. If the 2017 is the red, it’s actually cheaper than in France, where I’m being quoted 29€.

Robert, Illka and Claus - I’ve never tried a Grezeaux. The step-up in price from the Grezeaux to Clos Guillot is quite small - I’m sure they’re both good, but if I twisted your arm, which would you choose?

29

It’s not that easy, Julian. Turns on the vintage. If arm-twisted, it would be Croix Boisse as it is consistently better across the vintages. That said, I think Baudry was even once quoted as saying, in classic years, Grezeaux can be his best wine. It certainly is more archetype classic Loire Cab Franc, think along the lines of Raffault Les Picasses. Guillot, to me, is the merlot of the range, often softer and more rounded.

30

Based on my very limited experience the main difference is indeed stylistic and you should buy both to try which suits your palate best. So far my “strategy” has indeed been to buy Croix Boissée to age for 15 years from the vintage (I have 2010, 2015 and 2016 and am pondering whether the 2013 is something to buy as it is still available) and simply buy the two other cuvées with no clear cut plan. If buying for current drinking I think Les Grézeaux is the one for me.

31

Thanks you two, that’s very interesting. I only bought one Grézeaux so far, 2015, so I shall get some more. I did assume that Croix Boissée was the number one wine anyway.

Funny, this is like the Joguet discussion - you do realise that this completely knocks on its head the idea of a Loire classification?!! It would seem that Chris Kissack was right about a Burgundy idea - the “top” wine is not always top, which plot wins depends on the year, etc. So we are light years from Bordeaux, where barring weird goings-on, the Grand Vin is always king of the castle.

32

BTW - thread drift or rather thread connection here - you should try a Clos de L’Echo 2014, even you Robert, it’s very much in the same vein as Les Picasses.

33

Agreed. I think I have said that as well. Note that I have been saying Chene Vert is better than Dioterie, IMHO. As these are different vineyards, it really does vary by vintage and personal taste.

34

If that 2014 Grezeaux is a magnum … buy!
That is the vintage to hold.

35

Last June, I paid 23.50 Euro at the winery for 2015 Croix Boissee. Due to taxes here in Canada, I paid about 43 Euro for the 2016. If I had a larger luggage allowance, I would have bought more at the winery! At 26 Euro, I’d buy a case. I’d probably buy a case of everything on that list!

36

The '15 Boissee is excellent.

37

It’s interesting at a glance on WSPro how very little Grezeaux is available at retail in the USA right now. Maybe 10 retailers total, and I don’t know how many actually have it and can ship it.

Not sure if that means it’s getting snapped up, or not much is coming here, or both.

38

OK… so I bought:

6 x Grezeaux 2014 Magnum
6 x Croix Boissée 2017
6 x Croix Boissée 2015

That’s all they had. He was checking whether a restaurant still had the Grezeaux 14 or 15 in 75cl. If my wife doesn’t like the wines (unlikely if it’s a bit more polished expression of chinon as I have read above), I will blame it on the quarantine and tell her that some random people in the internet whom I have never met in person told me to buy. I think it’s called “enablement” (wikipedia: “enabling” has a positive sense of empowering individuals, or a negative sense of encouraging dysfunctional behavior). :slight_smile:

1 Like
39

Had the 2010 Boisee rouge recently. It was in fact a surprisingly elegant and balanced Cabernet Franc beginning to show an existing potential. Looking very much forward to following this the next 10-20 years
It reminded me of old school St Emillion Cab Franc blend

40

IMO, the '10 is arguably the pinnacle of Cabernet Franc. Of note, I’ve still not tried a Rougeard.