Bernard Baudry: Origins
Despite Bernard Baudry being a contender for pole position within the appellation, his domaine does not have a long and venerable history. He was born into a family of winemakers in Cravant-les-Coteaux, one which remains very prominent in the region today. Bernard’s mother was the daughter of Louis Angelliaume, a prominent local vigneron, and his wife Ambroisine. The Angelliaumes were a well known family; Léonce Angelliaume was the mayor of Cravant-les-Coteaux from 1959 until 1977, and several members of this clan were recognised by Pierre Bréjoux, writing in Les Vins de Loire (Parisienne d’Editions Techniques et Commerciales, 1956), as producing some of the most noteworthy wines in the commune. The Baudry family, meanwhile, were best associated with Domaine de la Perrière on the south bank of the Vienne. This domaine was established in 1398, and has been in the Baudry family since 1664, over at least six generations. This domaine passed from Bernard’s father Maurice Baudry to Jean Baudry, Bernard’s older brother. Today this domaine has grown into Baudry-Dutour, a viticultural mini-empire run by Jean’s son (and therefore Matthieu’s cousin) Christophe Baudry and his business partner Jean-Martin Dutour. Bernard and Matthieu, however, have no involvement in it.
The reason for this apparent division in the family is simple. Instead of taking up the secateurs on the family’s vines, Bernard Baudry decided to chart his own course in the world of wine. He left home to study oenology at the Lycée de Beaune during the 1960s, and he subsequently found his way back to the Loire Valley in 1970. He decided not to pick up with the family vines though, but instead he took up a post as a viticultural advisor in the Laboratoire Départemental et Régional d’Analyse in Tours, under Jacques Puisais, a renowned oenologist and founder of the Institut Français du Goût.
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