A Visit to Thibaud Boudignon, 2023
Some years ago I got wind of a new name in Savennières, a young vigneron who was said to be turning out some promising, if not superb wines. Absorbing the enthusiasm of these reports, before long I got in touch to request a visit.
“No problem,” came the reply, “but my cellars are difficult to find, so I suggest we meet in the village, by the church.”
I arrived at the church mid-morning, having driven down from Vouvray where I was renting a house. If you don’t know it, the tiny church in Savennières is a bijou beauty; constructed from layered slivers of schist, it dates to the 10th century. I didn’t have too long to admire it though, as just a few minutes later, the vigneron arrived, wearing a thick but close-cut beard, and a warm and welcoming grin. We shook hands, and then we headed to his cellars, where I quickly learned that the chatter was well-founded; these were great wines, some of the most exciting examples of Anjou and Savennières I had tasted for some time, and his would clearly be a name worth following.
That was the first time I met Thibaud Boudignon.
Too many years have passed (just shy of ten, in truth) since that first meeting, and while I have met up with Thibaud (pictured below, in Clos de la Hutte, his new cellars beyond) a few times during the course of the past decade, it was often in his role as winemaker at Château de Soucherie (a post from which he resigned after the 2015 vintage, although he continued to consult there up to 2019). All the while, though, I knew he was busy developing his domaine in the background. From small beginnings Thibaud had consolidated his position in the appellation, with a new and intriguing range of – until this visit – largely unfamiliar cuvées. He had breathed new life into forgotten vineyards, and perhaps into the very appellation itself.
