Description
Domaine des Baumard, Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru
Feast your eyes on one of the grandest sweet treasures in all of France: Domaine des Baumard’s 1967 Quarts de Chaume. For 55 years, this tiny Grand Cru parcel rested in their cellar, moving only once to be painstakingly recorked in 2007 before being carefully shipped to America this year.
I understand $200 is not cheap, but stay with me for a moment. Firstly, microscopic Quarts de Chaume is the only appellation in the entire Loire Valley with a prestigious Grand Cru status. Second, Baumard is the singular benchmark for these extreme rarities so you can rest assured that this is as profound and thought-provoking as it gets. Third, it’s a flat-out bargain when compared to Grand Cru Sauternes of this antiquity. And fourth, 1967 is one of France’s greatest sweet-wine vintages in the past century. In short, this is among the rarest, most profound, perfectly preserved nectars on earth, and I believe it’ll keep cellaring until its 75th birthday. Since we can only part with up to three bottles per person, I imagine absolute bedlam is about to ensue.
PLEASE NOTE: These few cases will be hitting our warehouse in approximately two weeks. We will ship them out immediately after arrival.
You’ll need the James Webb telescope to locate Grand Cru Quarts de Chaume: Nestled in Anjou, in the much-larger Coteaux du Layon, this matchbox appellation is planted to less than 50 hectares of vine. And yet, it holds tremendous history as far back as the Middle Ages when a quarter (“quart”) of a farmer’s crops had to be paid to the local seigneur.
Although the Baumard family has lived and farmed around these parts for nearly 400 years, the domaine itself was not established until the 1950s. In that time, they’ve become the gold standard for consistency and high quality. They make a wide range of wines, but Quarts de Chaume, which was finally codified Grand Cru in 2011, is their longest-aged and most revered treasured. It hails from terraced Chenin Blanc vineyards and is hand-harvested at extremely low yields after a portion of clusters have been affected with botrytis. Fermentation and aging strictly occur in stainless steel tanks prior to bottling. This ’67 was produced by Jean Baumard, who’s been penned into the history books as the region’s finest winemaker.
Patrick Will, who has worked closely with Baumard since their US debut, and likely has the deepest Baumard cellar aside from the domaine itself, had the following response when I asked our liaison if tasting was possible: “Let them try a bottle. The 1967 is pretty bullet-proof, rich and dense and very fresh when I tasted about five years back. The wine was recorked in 2007 with super-critical-CO2 treatment.”
Try we did. And it blew us away. I “blinded” the team on it and descriptors such as sublime, rich, sexy, fresh, and luxurious rang out—but the closest anyone got to calling the vintage was the early 1980s. So I must reiterate just how fresh this wine is. I’m still in awe. It delivers gorgeously deep layers of quince, apricot, honeyed baking spices, lanolin, caramelized sugar, baked pear, wet mushroom, tarragon, truffle, and candied nuts. The palate is full, rich, supple, and remarkably energetic—and the finish carries and carries with a smoldering sweetness. While there is plenty of residual sugar here, 55 years of slow maturation have pushed the sweetness into the background.
All I ask is that you don’t rush the experience or consume it under flippant conditions: Invite over those in your friend group that truly appreciate wine, and serve it alongside a special dish like foie gras or later in the meal with the attached poached pear recipe. Although no decant is required (although I don’t see it hurting the wine), I strongly suggest slow enjoyment, over the course of a long evening. The wine promises to evolve and shape-shift along the way. If you buy a second or third bottle, stash them away because one or two decades of further maturation is not out of the question. What a grand treat this is. Cheers!
