Bernard Baudry: Vineyards
The Bernard Baudry domaine is located at the side of the D21, which runs eastwards out of the town of Chinon towards Cravant-les-Coteaux and then Panzoult. The domaine, incorporating a house and an extensive cuverie as well as an office, tasting rooms and a small (albeit recently expanded) troglodytic cellar dug into the limestone rock, sits behind a broad grey gate on the northern side of the road. Its location is made clear by a pressed metal sign hanging over the tarmac, so it should not be too difficult to spot; you do have to keep your eyes peeled through, as it sits on a very slight bend in the road. Blink, and you may miss it.
Although this is where the majority of the work takes place, the domaine is a little more fractured than at first it might appear. Bernard Baudry also has a house just down the road, in the direction of Chinon, on the far side of their neighbour (and Matthieu’s cousin), Baudry-Dutour, as Christophe and Jean-Martin own the Cave du Coteau de Sonnay next-door, which they operate as a tasting room. There is another troglodytic cellar here, dug deep into the rock behind the house which struck me as being more complex and rather more impressive than the simple tunnel under the limestone at the domaine (although I am no longer certain this is true, the cellars at the domaine having been expanded). Both domaine and house look out across the road and over the valley of the Vienne. The vines that sit just across the road include those that Bernard Baudry started out with in 1975.
