FRENCH WINE

ORGANIC

WINE SPECTATOR 94 POINTS - "Green plum and verbena notes lead the way for now, with a flash of quinine on the finish. This is juicy, but still a bit compact overall, with the core of ample pear, quince and ginger flavors in reserve. Just wait for everything to knit together and stretch out, as the purity and length are there. Best from 2018 through 2028."

JOHN GILMAN 95 POINTS - "The 2017 Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec is a stunning wine in the making. The bouquet offers up a superb constellation of apple, pineapple, quince, very complex minerality, honeycomb, orange blossoms and lanolin. On the palate the wine is pure, nascently complex and full-bodied, with superb depth at the core, bright, seamless acids, laser-like focus and outstanding grip and balance on the long, vibrant and stunning finish. This too will be approachable for a few years and then shut down for an extended period of hibernation, but unlike the Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec, where early sampling would be perfectly understandable, to waste bottles of the 2017 Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec drinking it in its early window of accessibility would border on a crime! This is a legend in the making."

WINE SPECTATOR 93 POINTS - "This glistens, with glazed pear, warm persimmon, green plum and quince flavors, all carried by elegant white ginger and verbena notes. A light gilding of piecrust adds to the flattering feel, though there’s ample acidity here for balance and drive. Drink now through 2032."

Patrick Baudoin is located in the region of Anjou in the Loire Valley. He produces intensely mineral driven dry Chenin Blanc as well as some sweeter more succulent versions of the same grape from Coteaux du Layon. In his youth, Patrick avoided the wine industry but in 1990, he took over the estate that his great grandparents founded in the 1920s. The property is 13 hectares of vineyards situated on a cocktail of ancient eroded rocks, a mix of volcanic and sedimentary soils depending on the site. The vines are all farmed organically, only native yeasts are used and minimal amounts of sulfur added. Also, the wines are never chaptalized. Patrick has strong feelings about chaptalization and is fighting to have it outlawed in sweet wine production.