Domaine des Baumard, 2024 Update
Le vin des Quarts de Chaume est une des gloires ligériennes du vignoble français.
– Jean Baumard (1931 – 2023)
I was saddened to learn, not quite a year ago, of the passing of Jean Baumard, undeniably one of the most influential figures in the Anjou’s viticultural history.
Jean Baumard was a pioneer; both the family domaine and the Anjou vineyard as a whole were shaped by his existence. The family had been tending vines in the region for centuries, since at least 1634, but it was Jean who redrew the Baumard family’s boundaries, and began to mould the domaine into the shape it has today. In doing so he redefined the scope within which the vignerons of modern-day Anjou work.
Having first studied in Dijon and Bordeaux, in 1953 Jean returned home to the family domaine in Rochefort-sur-Loire to work alongside his father, Charles Baumard. Charles took a back seat in 1955, while Jean took a great leap forward, purchasing 5 hectares in the Quarts de Chaume appellation, which had been signed off by the INAO only the year before. To take on such a huge slice of the 40-hectare appellation – “one of the glories of the French vineyard,” as Jean would subsequently describe it in his book Le Quarts de Chaume Un Grand Vin du Monde (published 2007) – was a big move at such an early stage in his career. The domaine would, of course, go on to be renowned for the wines it made in this appellation.
This was only the beginning though. Not long after the Quarts de Chaume purchase Jean went on to acquire 14.5 hectares in the Savennières appellation, on the far side of the Loire. In doing so he was the first vigneron in Anjou to cross the river in order to work both of these prestigious appellations, an early vanguard for many who followed. Here he staked his reputation on the wines of the Clos du Papillon, one of the appellation’s top vineyards, the wine of which is today a much admired feature of the Baumard portfolio.
