Bernard Baudry and son Mathieu are making some of the best wines in Chinon these days from the best terroirs in the appellation in Cravant-les-Coteaux. That's saying something considering that they didn't even own vines 40 years ago. In fact, along with Raffault, these are pretty clearly the best two sources of Chinon in my mind. Where Raffaults wines tend to be powerful, brooding and very slow to evolve, Baudry's Chinons are made in a slightly more approachable style though not at the expense of structure or integrity. This is more like comparing Latour to Lafite than anything else.

Farming here has been fully organic since 2006, not easy to do in this continental climate with it's humidity and otherwise unpredictable weather. The domaine consists of various parcels planted on diverse soils around Cravant from pure limestone at the top of the slope facing the Vienne river to alluvial deposits near the bottom. Everything is done by hand here from pruning and picking to bottling. 

The Le Domaine bottling comes from a handful of small plots of vines between 40 and 45 years old planted on limestone bedrock with sandy gravel topsoil. This is classic Chinon of silky structure and deep complexity and just incredible value at $30. Fermented in concrete and aged 15 months in a combination of neutral wood and concrete.