Patrick Baudouin: Return to Ardenay
Having been born in Angers in 1951, Patrick Baudouin thus grew up in Paris, divorced from the family’s vines, and from the wines of the region. A teenager in the capital during the 1960s, he witnessed the student uprisings of May 1968 first-hand.
Fast forward a few more years and Patrick found himself working at the Kodak-Pathé factory in Vincennes, an eastern suburb of Paris. Once the home of French cinema established by the Pathé family, the site was acquired by Eastman-Kodak in 1927, and the factory grew to become a significant employer in the region. Patrick held a position here, and was also an activist for the Confédération Générale du Travail, one of France’s oldest trade union organisations. The factory eventually closed and it would be demolished in 1987, but Patrick had already moved on; during the 1980s he took up a position in a bookshop on the Rue de Belleville, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, just to the west of the old factory site.
It was in 1988 that the viticultural fire was lit beneath Patrick. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the student uprisings, Patrick had placed a few (presumably empty) bottles of the 1968 vintage in the window of the bookshop. Passing by was Jacques Dupont, the celebrated wine journalist today best known for his regular columns in Le Point. Suitably intrigued, he crossed the threshold to find the person responsible. Patrick and Jacques reportedly struck up a friendship, and when Jacques learned that Patrick had a hectare or two in Anjou, his eager and envious response galvanised the young-ish Patrick into action. Inspired by Jacques’ words, and perhaps also the quality of wines being made by the Foucault brothers at Clos Rougeard and later by Mark Angeli, who settled in the region at about the same time as Patrick, he returned to the Loire Valley, and taking the family’s small parcel of vines in hand.
