Christophe Baudry outside the new Baudry-Dutour winery in Panzoult

On 1st January 2009 the rapidly growing group Baudry-Dutour completed their purchase of Château de la Grille from Laurent Gosset. The around 100 hectare estate is in the northern suburbs of Chinon and has 27 hectares vines and was bought by Albert Gosset of Champagne Gosset in 1951. The Gosset family kept La Grille when Champagne Gosset was sold to Cointreau in 1994. Since 1995 the property has been owned by Sylvie and Laurent Gosset.

With this new acquisition Baudry-Dutour now has 120 hectares of vines, which makes them easily the largest individual estate in Chinon and among the largest in the Loire. Baudry-Dutour now has 40 hectares in Panzoult, 40 in Cravant-les-Coteaux and 40 in Chinon. Although the château's wines once had a high reputation I have never been very impressed with the La Grille wines – often rather mean – and I look forward to seeing the quality improve under the direction of Christopher Baudry and Jean-Martin Dutour. The Nouvelle Republique reported that Jean-Max Manceau will continue as regisseur at Château de la Grille.

Prior to this purchase Baudry-Dutour bought the 1.5ha vineyard of Les Capucins in Chinon early in 2008. This vineyard is by the Rue du Pavé-Neuf, just above L'Hospice Saint-Michel. There are several buildings within the estate that could be developed into gités or chambre sd'hôtes. The Clos is now being worked on biodynamically and the first vintage here for Baudry-Dutour was 2008.

Bernard Tardy, the ex-petrol tycoon, is an 'actionnaire privilégié' (privileged or protected shareholder in Baudry-Dutour). He has been involved since 1993.

Jean-Martin Dutour outside the new Baudry-Dutour winery in Panzoult

Of course should they ever buy Couly-Dutheil (not very likely), the company name could be easily amended to Baudry-Dutheil – incorporating elements of all three names!

Baudry-Dutour, La Morandière, 37220 Panzoult
Tel: 02.47.58.53.01
Email: info@baudry-dutour.fr
Site: www.baudry-dutour.fr

Jean-Martin@the Baudry-Dutour winery in Panzoult

Jean-Martin Dutour: “I’m very happy with the quality but our bank manager isn’t happy about the volume we’ve made this year. It doesn’t take long to do a tour of all the vats! Overall our average yield is 35 hl/ha – on parts of the plain around Cravant it is only 30. We lost 10 hl/ha from the early April frost and then 10 hl/ha like everyone else from other factors during the year such as the drying wind during September and October.

But the quality is very good, although for the moment the acidities are high – there’s a lot of malic. We will have to see what happens once the malolactic fermentation is finished. We started picking around the 4th/5th October and finished on 20th. The grapes’ potential varied between 12% and 14%. Once again this year there has been no need to chaptalise.”

Sign for the tasting room at Cravant-les-Coteaux

I ask Jean-Martin if there is another vintage that 2008 resembles. His response is commendably cautious. “It is really too early to say. It depends upon how far the acidity lessens and softens. High acidity means that the wines will age a long time but won’t necessarily get better as high acidity never softens – take 1986, for example. Certainly the reds are bigger than last year – more structured and with more substance, although I think the 2007s are delicious to drink young.”

Web: Baudry-Dutour