2022 Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Clos Guillot, Loire Valley

I tasted the 2022 Le Clos Guillot a year ago and it was not in good shape. I was not aware that they were unfiltered, unbottled samples and I was scathing of their condition. Now filtered and tasted at the winery, this is like a different wine. It's firm, concentrated, dry and savory, befitting of the 2022 vintage. This is a big wine that forms a sturdy block, moving right along. There is flesh on the palate and plenty of juicy fruit that will open when the tannins mellow. The finish is persistent with rich blackcurrant fruit, prune and tar notes. The 2022 may only be medium-bodied, but it is powerful and long. Give this time for it to show its best.

94 points Rebecca Gibb MW vinous.com

A real wow moment on meeting this one, the nose is simply bursting with dark roasted fruit, crushed minerals, blood orange, violets, toast and black liquorice. The palate is beautifully textured, very correct for the vintage, nicely polished, filled with layers of dark fruits, finely grained tannins and plenty of acid cut as well. The middle and finish simmers with orange peel and dark currants, all laid over the dense and yet sinewy substance. A fine Le Clos Guillot, with such admirable tension, mineral and acid drive, and incredible length too. One for the cellar – hopefully mine. The alcohol level is between 13% and 13.5%.

94-96 points Chris Kissak thewinedoctor.com

Organic. 100% Cabernet Franc. The Clos Guillot vineyard is situated on a southeast-facing slope in Chinon with soils of clay, chalk and yellow limestone (known locally as tuffeau). Baudry’s vines here—situated very close to Le Chêne Vert, the vineyard made famous by Charles Joguet—were planted between 1993 and 2000. Unusually, this vineyard also includes a small parcel of the Domaine’s remaining ungrafted vines which used to go to Baudry’s now retired (and much missed) Franc de Pied cuvée. Today these vines are blended into Le Clos Guillot.

Harvesting was by hand, and yields never exceeded 40 hl/ha. Fermentation took place in large wooden fermenters with regular pigéage (to provide gentle extraction of supple tannins). After a maceration of about 20 days, the wine was pressed off and then matured for 12 months in lightly seasoned oak barrels, followed by nine months in cement. Bottled without filtration. Matthieu Baudry describes Le Clos Guillot as a “very pure expression of Chinon.”

Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Clos Guillot is one of the great vineyard expressions of Cabernet Franc in the Loire Valley, coming from a walled limestone slope just outside the town of Chinon where vines have been grown for centuries. This clos sits on the famous tuffeau limestone that gives Chinon its most structured, age worthy wines, producing fruit with deep concentration, savoury complexity and a distinctive chalky, mineral backbone. Bernard Baudry is a master of this terroir, farming organically and working with old vines to capture the pure voice of place, and Le Clos Guillot is one of his most serious and long lived wines.

The wine pours a deep ruby with garnet edges, opening with aromas of blackcurrant, dark cherry, dried herbs, graphite and a subtle floral lift. On the palate it is powerful yet beautifully precise, layering dense dark fruit, fine grained tannins and a long, mineral driven finish that reflects the limestone soils. It is superb with roast lamb, beef, game and mushroom dishes, and it will continue to evolve for twenty years or more, gaining more truffle, tobacco and earthy complexity as it matures.