Thibaud Boudignon Savennieres Franc de Pied 2023
The 2022: 97 pts Vinous
Hailing from ungrafted vines on the Clos de la Hutte vineyard, the 2022 Savennières Franc de Pied blossoms and expands in the mouth. Massive concentration sits within its delicate core. There's a bright line of citrusy acidity that carries this wine from start to finish with a residual saltiness, leaving you licking the inside of your mouth. It is restrained aromatically, focusing quietly on texture, essence and substance. - By Rebecca Gibb MW on May 2024
Hailing from ungrafted vines on the Clos de la Hutte vineyard, the 2022 Savennières Franc de Pied blossoms and expands in the mouth. Massive concentration sits within its delicate core. There's a bright line of citrusy acidity that carries this wine from start to finish with a residual saltiness, leaving you licking the inside of your mouth. It is restrained aromatically, focusing quietly on texture, essence and substance. - By Rebecca Gibb MW on May 2024
In the wake of previous legendary Loire vigneron, such as Charles Joguet, François Chidaine or Didier Dagueneau (with his legendary Asteroide vintage), Thibaud Boudignon has created his masterpiece, a Savennières from a few vines planted in “franc de pied”, on it’s own rootstock, in the heart of his famed Clos de la Hutte. This was made in search of the original taste of the terroir, before phylloxera ordered the widespread use of rootstocks from the North American continent.
Let's be clear, this wine hardly exists, except for a handful of lucky people who will have the chance to taste it perhaps once in their life..Eager to push the quest for purity that drove the creation of this precious nectar as far as possible, Thibaud chose to age it on fine lees for 18 months exclusively in Wine Globe, a glass wine globe shaped vessel. In the end, just 500 bottles of this untraceable Franc de Pied 2021 were produced, for the entire world: a drop in the ocean!
Vinous Media’s Rebecca Gibb MW (June 2023):
Thibaud Boudignon is a recent entrant to Savennières, having started his project in 2009 and not leaving his role at Domaine de la Soucheraie until 2015. The purity of the wines of this former judo champion Thibaud Boudignon, is impeccable. His three Savennières - La Vigne Cendrée, Clos de Fremine and Clos de la Hutte - are within spitting distance of each other. Still, each has its own personality: Clos de la Fremine, whose sandy topsoil is delicate and open, whereas Clos de la Hutte, planted on schist, tends to be fuller and more brooding. The theme throughout the range is transparency and harnessed power of the wines, which marks a contrast to bigger, bolder Savennières styles produced elsewhere. In 2021, Boudignon planted a 2.5ha site less than a minute's walk from the other parcels: Devant Le Jeu. He also owns two hectares across the Loire in the Anjou appellation. Boudignon says he's stopping at that. There's a small, modern winery at the site, a few minutes' drive to the south of Savennières, completed in 2016. You'll find tanks and a range of barrels in various shapes and sizes, yet oak is used not to bring flavor but texture. Boudignon has an unusual albeit practical approach in the cellar: conducting the harvest in the vineyard and holding the juice at 3˚C until all the parcels are picked so that all the work in the vineyard is done and he can concentrate solely on making the wines. There's no malo here - it's cheating, according to Boudignon, although in 2021, that has made for some really steely wines that require you to be an acid fiend. It may only be a young domaine, but the clarity of the wines from young vines has made the world sit up and take note. The fruit for Boudignon's Anjou Blanc was brought in until 2021, when 50% of the fruit was estate-grown. The result is a pure, clean wine with delectable purity. There are delicate flavors of just-ripe pineapple, citrus and nettles and a subtle hint of vanilla - it is fermented and aged in both 500-liter barrels and oval Stockinger ‘cigars’. A line of acidity pulls this wine through to a refined conclusion. It can be approached now for its fine fruit but will go on.
$90.00
Original: $299.99
-70%Thibaud Boudignon Savennieres Franc de Pied 2023—
$299.99
$90.00
Description
The 2022: 97 pts Vinous
Hailing from ungrafted vines on the Clos de la Hutte vineyard, the 2022 Savennières Franc de Pied blossoms and expands in the mouth. Massive concentration sits within its delicate core. There's a bright line of citrusy acidity that carries this wine from start to finish with a residual saltiness, leaving you licking the inside of your mouth. It is restrained aromatically, focusing quietly on texture, essence and substance. - By Rebecca Gibb MW on May 2024
Hailing from ungrafted vines on the Clos de la Hutte vineyard, the 2022 Savennières Franc de Pied blossoms and expands in the mouth. Massive concentration sits within its delicate core. There's a bright line of citrusy acidity that carries this wine from start to finish with a residual saltiness, leaving you licking the inside of your mouth. It is restrained aromatically, focusing quietly on texture, essence and substance. - By Rebecca Gibb MW on May 2024
In the wake of previous legendary Loire vigneron, such as Charles Joguet, François Chidaine or Didier Dagueneau (with his legendary Asteroide vintage), Thibaud Boudignon has created his masterpiece, a Savennières from a few vines planted in “franc de pied”, on it’s own rootstock, in the heart of his famed Clos de la Hutte. This was made in search of the original taste of the terroir, before phylloxera ordered the widespread use of rootstocks from the North American continent.
Let's be clear, this wine hardly exists, except for a handful of lucky people who will have the chance to taste it perhaps once in their life..Eager to push the quest for purity that drove the creation of this precious nectar as far as possible, Thibaud chose to age it on fine lees for 18 months exclusively in Wine Globe, a glass wine globe shaped vessel. In the end, just 500 bottles of this untraceable Franc de Pied 2021 were produced, for the entire world: a drop in the ocean!
Vinous Media’s Rebecca Gibb MW (June 2023):
Thibaud Boudignon is a recent entrant to Savennières, having started his project in 2009 and not leaving his role at Domaine de la Soucheraie until 2015. The purity of the wines of this former judo champion Thibaud Boudignon, is impeccable. His three Savennières - La Vigne Cendrée, Clos de Fremine and Clos de la Hutte - are within spitting distance of each other. Still, each has its own personality: Clos de la Fremine, whose sandy topsoil is delicate and open, whereas Clos de la Hutte, planted on schist, tends to be fuller and more brooding. The theme throughout the range is transparency and harnessed power of the wines, which marks a contrast to bigger, bolder Savennières styles produced elsewhere. In 2021, Boudignon planted a 2.5ha site less than a minute's walk from the other parcels: Devant Le Jeu. He also owns two hectares across the Loire in the Anjou appellation. Boudignon says he's stopping at that. There's a small, modern winery at the site, a few minutes' drive to the south of Savennières, completed in 2016. You'll find tanks and a range of barrels in various shapes and sizes, yet oak is used not to bring flavor but texture. Boudignon has an unusual albeit practical approach in the cellar: conducting the harvest in the vineyard and holding the juice at 3˚C until all the parcels are picked so that all the work in the vineyard is done and he can concentrate solely on making the wines. There's no malo here - it's cheating, according to Boudignon, although in 2021, that has made for some really steely wines that require you to be an acid fiend. It may only be a young domaine, but the clarity of the wines from young vines has made the world sit up and take note. The fruit for Boudignon's Anjou Blanc was brought in until 2021, when 50% of the fruit was estate-grown. The result is a pure, clean wine with delectable purity. There are delicate flavors of just-ripe pineapple, citrus and nettles and a subtle hint of vanilla - it is fermented and aged in both 500-liter barrels and oval Stockinger ‘cigars’. A line of acidity pulls this wine through to a refined conclusion. It can be approached now for its fine fruit but will go on.
