Thomas Batardière - Chenin Blanc L'Esprit Libre 2021

Thomas Batardière is a passionate, unabashed winemaker who comes to the whole arena from a different angle than many other natural vignerons in Anjou. Born in 1980 in Angers, he studied anthropology, but in 2008 while working as a filmmaker, Batardière became deeply interested in natural wine. Abandoning his previous career, he worked as a sommelier first but was more drawn to winemaking; not long thereafter he decided to work with Mathieu Vallée at Château Yvonne in Saumur. Articulate and thoughtful, Batardière quickly became Mathieu Vallée’s right-hand man, working closely at the domaine while also taking the two-year viticulture course in Beaune.

Biodynamics aim to heighten the general acoustics…It allows the vine to communicate better with its environment, more deeply from the earth to the cosmos

This wine is made of three parcels, situated in Rablay, with vines 15-90 years old. From plateaus of red sand and quartz gravel on schist. The juice is blended in steel tanks before the fermentation starts. The alcoholic and malolatic fermentations start naturally, without inoculation and without temperature control (his cave is underground and it’s 14 degrees Celsius). The wine rests on its lees from pressing until summer without sulfur. Raised mainly in steel altough Thomas uses L’Esprit Libre to break in his 500 L tonneaux that he then uses for Clos de Cocus when needed. He generally add 1 – 2 grams of sulfur (natural sulfur from an Italian quarry) at bottling. 500 cases produced.

Type: White
Producer: Thomas Batardière
Varietal: Chenin Blanc
Country: France
Region: Loire Valley
Farming: Organic, Biodynamic, Low sulphur