Five Minutes with... Matthieu Baudry of Domaine Bernard Baudry
No.79 | Interview
On a recent visit to the Loire, I stopped in at Domaine Bernard Baudry in Cravant-les-Côteaux to catch up with Matthieu Baudry. We tasted through recent vintages, talked about the exceptional 2025 vintage, and sampled a few wines still in cuve, which are looking impressive even at this early stage.
Matthieu and Domaine Bernard Baudry need little introduction for lovers of Loire Cabernet Franc. Established in the mid-1970s by Matthieu’s father Bernard, the domaine today is one of Chinon's benchmark estates, and Matthieu has been shaping its direction since his first vintage in 2001. What follows is a lightly edited conversation about the grape he knows best: what it asks of the people who grow it, how to introduce new consumers to it, and what it feels like when it's truly singing.
CFC: For someone new to Cabernet Franc from Chinon, how would you describe this grape and wine?
MB: I'd say that Cabernet Franc, for me, in Chinon, is a temperate grape - the Loire has a relatively temperate climate, and Chinon especially. It has a character that can offer a little ripeness, a little richness, but always with beautiful freshness. It naturally varies according to terroir, but there is always a balance. That comes from the climate, and also from the freshness that the limestone brings, which is the dominant rock in the Loire Valley. It gives the wine its balance - fruit, acid, concentration - but never overflowing with ripeness or with the greenness it may have had in the past.
CFC: Some drinkers are intimidated by the herbaceous side of Cabernet Franc. How do you speak to that?
MB: First, I think they need to taste it, and take a little time with it. It's not a grape that immediately delivers fruitiness, or an immediately charming quality in the way some grapes inherently are. There will always be that light herbaceous note, and that can be intimidating because it takes people back to references from the past, where there was something quite green and unripe - and not only in Cabernet Franc. So you need to take the time. You also need to appreciate the textures of these wines, because they are really quite beautiful. There is a lot of delicacy, a lot of finesse. Yes, there is tannin - it's not a grape without tannin - but the tannins are often very delicate, very elegant. It's a grape that produces very elegant wines.
CFC: Your first vintage was 2001. After more than twenty years working with this grape, what advice would you offer a producer working with Cabernet Franc in another part of the world?
MB: It's difficult to give advice - because I myself like to question what I'm doing, and I still have plenty of things to improve at home before advising others. But I think the most important thing is: don't force the grape. Even if it has colour, even if it seems to have structure, it is very delicate. Don't chase extraction, don't chase power. That's true in the cellar, but it's also true in the vineyard. Be careful not to put it under stress. Vines don't like to be stressed in general, and with Cabernet Franc, even if it has thick skins, too much sun doesn’t bode well for it, and the same goes for too much rain, too much humidity. I like the idea of Cabernet Franc in a garden, where you come to work the soil, you tend to it carefully, and you never put it through suffering.
CFC: Is there a Cabernet Franc that you’ve tasted recently from outside your own cellar that you’ve really enjoyed or has maybe surprised you?
MB: Outside the Loire? It is perhaps terrible to admit, but as someone from Chinon, what I know best is indeed Chinon, Bourgueil, and Saumur-Champigny. I'm a big fan of Bourgueil. I find there are many beautiful terroirs there. But I once tasted a remarkable single-varietal Cabernet Franc from Saint-Émilion - a very pure, very precise expression of the grape. And then there was a wine from Niagara, Canada that you [Allison Slute] brought to a masterclass for the Chinon producers' syndicate. We tasted it together there, and I was truly moved by it. I've since mentioned that wine to other vignerons and journalists - it was very young, but it was delicious. That's a Cabernet Franc I still think about.
CFC: Last question - three words to describe Cabernet Franc for you.
MB: Elegance - because that’s how I love wine in general, and it’s a grape for which that word truly works.
Freshness - yes, it’s a word that gets used often, especially now with climate change and people looking for lighter, fresher wines, but the Loire genuinely has a cool climate, and freshness is something this grape is rightly known for.
Vibration - because at a certain moment with a great Cabernet Franc, you feel there is a rhythm in the wine. It makes you vibrate a little. You want to keep listening to this music, this song. You want to revisit the wine. That’s a spontaneous answer. I didn’t plan it.
CFC: That was exactly the goal. It’s wonderful. Santé, Matthieu.
For more on the wines from Domaine Bernard Baudry, check out some of the below posts:
