2018 Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru (500 mL) 500 ml

Quarts de Chaume is the only Grand Cru in the Loire Valley, and it is tiny: In it, 20 producers combine to make just over 4,000 cases of Quarts de Chaume per year. Compare that with Sauternes/Barsac, where 5 MILLION bottles are produced every year. 

Domaine des Baumard is the most important producer of Quarts de Chaume, but they have just six hectares—barely 15 acres—in this area known for “geological chaos.” The soils are a mixture of sandstone, schist, quartz, rhyolite, and spilite. What’s really important is the proximity to the Layon River, which supplies the morning mist that encourages the famed botrytis cinerea, or the Noble Rot crucial to Sauternes production. 

Noble rot is not required by the Quarts de Chaume AOP rules, and Florent Baumard, who took over from his father Jean in 1990, believes that botrytis can dominate a wine, thereby destroying any sense of terroir. That’s why he uses just 1/3 botrytis-affected grapes for his Quarts de Chaume, combining them with equal parts concentrated berries and simply ripe ones. 

The Chenin Blanc grapes are picked in multiple tries, harvested by hand, with only the best bunches making it into the winery. The team uses small baskets as if they were harvesting peaches, and they’re left in a cold room before pressing so they don’t oxidize. The low-pressure pressing, crucial to capture the quality of the fruit, can take six to 12 hours. 

The different “cuts” of the pressings are fermented separately, and only blended after fermentation is complete. The wine then spends nine to 18 months on the lees in stainless steel—no oak barrels to interfere with the flavors of the wine.