Things haven’t been at their least challenging of late. Sleep is just pointing at me and laughing rather than walloping me over the head until I zonk out - this makes all sorts of things distinctly more irksome to deal with. Consequently, I thought I’d cheer myself up by popping a goodie and drinking it for breakfast. After trying his basic wine I’ve been eager to have a top-shelf Baudry Chinon and, whilst I really should have aged this, I damned well enjoyed drinking the bleeder (and I’ve got two more bottles to stick in the cellar anyway).
Chinon ‘La Croix Boissee’ 2007, Bernard Baudry
I love the ripe fruit on the nose, it is somewhere between raspberries and blackberries in character. As I only have a passing interest in fruit unless it has been pressed and fermented I don’t know the name of such a fruit, but I can assure you it smells delicious. There is a herbaceous aroma to it that doesn’t smell unripe in the textbook ‘green’ sense, but it is definitely leafy. It is clearly ripe, but there is nary a hint of an alcohol burn. No silliness with vast amounts of new oak, either. It is a complex nose of real personality with that unknown fruit, savoury leafiness and a totally winning stone/earth scent bound up together in beguiling harmony making it a delight to sniff. Yum. The acid and tannin on the palate have a very slight suggestion of spikiness, but as far as I am concerned the mouthfeel is that of a properly elegant and refined wine which delivers its classy characters with a cool, sophisticated ease. That spikiness is a product of the wine’s youth. Even given its attractive elegance right now I feel my vinous sense tingling to say this has a shed-load more pleasure to give in the future; I will definitely be keeping my other two bottles. I cannot think of a better young Cabernet Franc I’ve tasted since the sadly departed glory days of Joguet in the early ninties. Cracking kit.
Yeah, that was the kind of sharpener I feel works a treat at 4am, I’ll face the day with a big grin!
Nice. Any opinion on 07 Loire reds in general. I have not read much about them and the little I’ve seen is not of the positive though your note would differ.
I cannot be much help as far as the broader world of 2007 Cabernet Franc wines go, I’m afraid to say, I simply haven’t tried that much. On the other hand, I’ve had quite a lot of 2007 red Sancerre which, although it comes from a different part of the Loire and is made from Pinot, have invariably been surprisingly good kit. Jean-Laurent ‘Le Homme’ Vacheron’s two cuvees especially were the cat’s arse and I’ve loved all the many bottles I’ve necked. After trying one of M. Baudry’s basic Chinons I felt the need to try something higher up the range and only 2007s were easy to score. Since all the red Sancerres did it for me I felt safe buying this. I feel my confidence was well rewarded - it was a wine engorged with cool sophistication and definite style.
Sorry I cannot be much more enlightening than that.
My feeling on the Cab Francs of Anjou/Touraine when i tasted them young was that, generalising, this was a weak vintage, with the wet and cool weather translating through into rather disappointing vegetal wines.
This is a generlisation though, nothing more than a starting point. You can’t taste a few wines and write off a whole vintage as a result, there will always be some estates that do well in spite of an inclement growing season (and no doubt some who do really badly too). Nevertheless, the wines are less attractive than 2008, 2009 and 2010. I tend to avoid them. I would certainly aim to try before I buy if I ever saw any for sale.
The only estate that I recall bucking this trend (there will be others, but this was the only one from what I tasted) was Bernard Baudry. These wines had a much cleaner, defined, ripe fruit profile. Not as rich as more recent vintages, but still good wines. I’m not surprised to read David’s positive note.
I read somewhere recently that Baudry’d said the 07 CB is the only recent release to drink now. I’m only in about 3rd grade myself in learning about Loire Cabernet Franc wines, but with a little age, to me, they are more like pure cherry juice than wines I’ve had from anywhere else.
Thanks Chris. I am not in favor of writing off vintages either but sometimes it is difficult to taste enough to know and we haven’t seen a lot of 07 Chinon out here.
There is no such thing as an off vintage at Baudry. If the wine is crap, he won’t release a Croix Boissée. At the risk of repeating myself, Baudry stands at the absolute pinnacle of wine producers.
I haven’t had a 2007 since release. I had both 2006 and 2008 in the last 10 days. The 2006 was beautiful for about 2 hours after opening up and before closing down. The 2008 was pretty shut down the whole time.
In any event, I’ll have a go at a 2007 in the next week or so.
I think it accurately reflects the vintage and site. It certainly tastes like Croix Boissée to me. I buy it every year, so I don’t mind vintage variability.
I made the mistake of not buying “so-so vintages” in the past which I later came to regret.
That being said, this is kind of my wine, so not everyone needs to follow my strategy.
I’ve bought almost every year since 1996 (probably missed one or two in there) with thanks for you for being one of the people who introduced me to them and this is the very first time that I didn’t go “Wow”. But given their quality in general I’m certainly willing to accept the thought that it’s just shut down at the moment. It strikes me as being more likely.
Though if you can convince them to switch to a normal sized bottle that would be greatly appreciated…
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