2018 Baumard Quarts de Chaume 500ml, Loire Valley

2018 Quarts de Chaume     500ml    stelvin-luxe
An excellent vintage for the Loire for all styles of wine especially the sweet wines of the Anjou. This vintage carries 157 g/l residual and shows great richness and depth.
In this vintage Florent moved to bottling his entire production in the Quarts de Chaume appellation in 500 ml format. Fresh with layers of yellow and white peach scented with jasmine, lemon peel and white freesias. The palate has a simply divine poise and breadth, with a silky, tightly formed texture, supported by a rich phenolic grip. It presents an array of floral white fruits, with its great purity reinforced by its fresh veins of acidity. Deliciously formed, bright and pure, with a dense, velvety and creamy texture, but countered by structure and freshness, this has great length and serious potential. I can see it going for a few decades in a decent cellar. The alcohol on the label is 12%.

94 points thewinedoctor.com Feb 2023

Aromas of baked pears, green apples, sage and thyme. Medium-bodied with charming sweetness. Supple and bright with a solid core of candied berries and fresh flowers. Honey and almond skin. Lovely length here too. Seriously tasty. Drink or hold. 

94 points jamessuckling.com October 2022

“Florent Baumard is one of the world’s best winemakers, and you probably don’t know him. That’s because he produces Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley, an all-too-often overlooked region. Baumard produces a range of dry and sweet wines, topped by his Quarts de Chaume. And perhaps the best part of Baumard’s new wines is that they are now all under screw cap. Bravo to Florent Baumard for making this decision based on quality, not marketing.”
— James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, March 2007
 
THE STORY OF DOMAINE DES BAUMARD, BY FLORENT BAUMARD.
“The Baumard style is a very particular one, both Savennières and Quarts de Chaume quite distinctive. Looking at Savennières first, the style can be a little difficult to pigeonhole; avoidance of softening features – in particular fermentation and élevage in cement or steel rather than wood, and the absence of the malolactic fermentation – typifies the old-school style of Savennières, giving wines that are firm, austere, bone-dry and capable of great terroir expression after a few years in bottle. Sometimes quite a few years. Those wishing to make Savennières more accessible, more attractive at a younger age, are more likely to employ wood and malolactic fermentation to take the harder edge off the wine. Baumard’s philosophy means the style here leans towards the traditional, but when you line them up against other traditionally styled wines the wines remain distinctive. Ultimately, I suppose, I have to accept that they show a style that is uniquely Baumard. Thinking particularly of the Clos du Papillon and Clos Ste Yves cuvées, they remain taut, especially now they are bottled under a screwcap closure, for many years, only softening as they hit a decade or more. They move from rather stern notes of green pear skin and preserved lemons in their youth into a style more honeyed and textured with age, all of which comes purely from the fruit.

The issue of Quarts de Chaume is perhaps rather more complicated, and the situation is clearly set to change. Whatever controversies may surround this appellation and wine, there is no doubt in my mind that the Quarts de Chaume from Domaine des Baumard remains, in many vintages, one of the finest examples of the appellation. The methods behind the wine are unique, and seem to me to be at odds with the Quarts de Chaume’s proven capability of producing naturally botrytis-dried, wind-dried grapes of complex flavour, and as such they should certainly be put up for debate. But we should not judge purely on methodology, but also on results, as we cannot ignore the finished product. Judging solely by what is in the glass these taut and vibrant wines, with their remarkably crystalline and minerally-quartzy character, usually countered by their soothing, polished sweetness, are delightful examples of the Quarts de Chaume appellation. Despite acknowledging that the methodology is unusual, I have already voted with my palate; the Quarts de Chaume made by Florent Baumard may be atypical but it remains a very good wine and it has been, in many vintages, sufficiently compelling for me to add it to my own cellar.” thewinedoctor.com
157 g/l residual sugar