Baumard 2002 Quarts de Chaume (Loire) – Powerfully sweet, like liquid chenin candy, but with extra quartzage. Developing? Only in the notional sense; while this is far from as sweet as QdC can get, experience suggests that the wines are essentially immortal, or at least so on any human scale. It’s very, very good. Do I care that it may have been made with cryoextraction? (To be fair, I don’t know if this vintage was or not.) Yes, and indeed my enjoyment is proportionally tempered. (5/12)
baumard
Queue up
Baumard 1995 Coteaux du Layon “la queue de Paon” (Loire) – For all the varied disappointments inherent in the dry wines from this house – rarely flaws or problems so much as aqueous timidity – the sweet wines don’t, at least to my palate, suffer from the same issues. In fact, the restraint that bores in other wines is, in the stickier examples, a refreshing alternative to the frequent excesses of the region, in which sugars have been pushed way too far, or unfortunate biological experiments are allowed to run their independent courses within insufficiently-protected bottles. Here are spice, a wide range of apples and whitish-green melons, honeysuckle, and a coppering minerality atop the essential foundation of flaked earth. Long, perfectly balanced, and delicious. (7/10)
Savennières the asparagus for last
Baumard 1997 Savennières (Loire) – White asparagus and green apples in a soup. Very thick, acid-deficient, but decent nonetheless, and still holding up OK. I see no reason to hold it longer, however. (6/08)
Chenin blanc, sittin’ in a trie…
Baumard 1997 Savennières “Trie Spéciale” (Loire) – Feels sugary, tastes like just-sprouted asparagus. It’s a weird combination, and there’s probably a reason you’ve never seen asparagus candy on the market. Maybe in Japan, I dunno. They’ll try anything. (2/08)
2 pints
Baumard 1995 Quarts de Chaume (Loire) – 375 ml. Oxidized. (4/08)