Pale gold with silvery highlights. Delicate fruity and floral nose offering up lemon, bush peach, linden and cut grass. The palate displays silky effervescence, a supple mouthfeel, elegant, honed fruit and thirst-quenching length. Producer Information Domaine Baumard, in Rochefort-sur-Loire just southwest of Angers, is a sizeable and well-regarded Loire Valley wine producer. The domaine is known for making prime examples of Chenin Blanc from the Savennières, Coteaux du Layon and Quarts de Chaume appellations. The winery also produces a range of labels under broader designations. In all, the estate runs around 40 hectares (99 acres) of organically farmed vineyard land. The vineyards are planted primarily to Chenin Blanc, but also include Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc for the production of Crémant de Loire wines, as well as Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc for Baumard's Anjou Rouge. Indeed, Baumard's wine portfolio is expansive, covering white, rosé, red, sweet and sparkling wines. The domaine produces multiple Savennières including a single-vineyard wine from Clos du Papillon, a domaine bottling from Clos St. Yves, and a vintage-dependent cuvée called Trie Spéciale. From vineyards in Coteaux du Layon, the estate produces long-lived sweet wines, in particular from the Quarts de Chaume appellation. The range is broad and extensive, however, with labels covering the full range of geographical levels, from Rosé d'Anjou to Crémant de Loire to Vin de France. The Baumard family has cultivated vines on the estate since 1634, but wasn't until 1955 that Jean Baumard established the domaine and expanded the estate's vineyard land, becoming the first winemaker in Anjou to produce wine from both banks of the Loire river. The domaine has courted controversy in the past for its use of cryoextraction in the production of Quarts de Chaume sweet wines. The practice involves dropping must temperatures to freezing, thus effectively concentrating the juice (the frozen portions of the must are left behind while the sugars, which are more resistant to freezing at lower temperatures, are drawn off for fermentation). The practice was phased out by appellation laws in 2020.
