Baudry-Dutour: Wines
The harvest at Baudry-Dutour is a mixture of machine-picking and hand-picking. For vines picked by machine, they perform what they call vendanges negatives; this is essentially cleaning the vines by hand, removing unhealthy or unripe fruit just before it is time to pick, what most other vignerons would refer to as toilettage or nettoyage. They then pick the fruit left on the vine by machine using the very latest equipment, including a machine with on-board optical sorting (as pictured below – I watched the very start of the 2013 harvest in the vines just behind the Baudry-Dutour winemaking facilities at Domaine du Roncée). The ensuing vinifications vary according to the domaine and cuvée, so it is best to look at the wines on a domaine-by-domaine basis.
Considering the number of different domaines Christophe and Jean-Martin have gathered together, the range of wines is (thankfully) quite straightforward. Each domaine produces just two or three wines, and here at Domaine de la Perrière these are lead by a domaine cuvée and an old-vines cuvée.
The former is sourced from 15 hectares of vines, picked at a yield of about 50 hl/ha, using a machine harvester after nettoyage. The grapes thus arrive at the cellars ready destemmed, where they see a traditional vinification in stainless steel vat, and élevage also in stainless steel. As for the Vieilles Vignes cuvée, this is sourced from about 10 hectares of 46-year old vines, picked by hand at a yield of about 40 hl/ha. The bunches are destemmed at the cellars and see a traditional vinification, but here the élevage is conducted in oak barrels, the ages ranging from second-fill to ancient, 15-year old vessels.
As noted on the previous page, there is also an organic cuvée produced here; this is a cuvée parcellaire, sourced from the lieu-dit Les Battereaux, a small parcel of old vines aged 50 years situated midway up the slope. It is named Les Battereaux, for the parcel of origin.
