Prince Poniatowski: Vineyards
The Clos Baudoin vineyard was always the jewel in the Poniatowski crown. This parcel of vines is to be found in the Vallée de Nouy directly above the Poniatowski house and cellars, just down the road from Bernard Fouquet at Domaine des Aubuisières. Indeed, if you have visited Bernard, and tasted with him in the cellars hewn from the limestone bedrock of the region, then you have been standing directly beneath the soil and vines of the Clos Baudoin.
It is widely accepted by many in the region that the Clos Baudoin (pictured below, viewed from the edge of the Clos du Bourg) is one of the Loire’s greatest terroirs. It was said to have been named for Abbott Baudoin in 1707, but had been cultivated by many generations of vignerons before that time. Within the appellation it has long been thought of as a grand cru, of similar standing to the Clos du Bourg on the première côte, perhaps the appellation’s most famous vineyard, once in the possession of Charles Vavasseur but today long associated with Domaine Huet. That the name Clos Baudoin did not trip off the tongue so easily as that of the Clos du Bourg might, I am afraid to say, perhaps be attributed to Prince Poniatowski’s tenure, and a failure to realise the full potential of the site.
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