La Croix Boissee

In the glass

Aroma: blackcurrant, crushed limestone, tobacco leaf, iris

Palate: cassis, chalk, graphite, dried bay

Limestone-grown Cabernet Franc from the highest, latest-ripening parcel at Cravant. Denser, more vertical and slower-developing than Les Grezeaux, with chalky minerality and high-toned cassis fruit.

What it pairs with

• Roast saddle of venison
  Full body and chalky tannin frame gamey red meat; the cassis core lifts the jus.
• Beef cheek braised in red wine
  Long-cooked beef and a wine reduction echo the wine's iron and dried herb register.
• Aged Comte
  Nutty hard cheese sharpens the wine's flinty minerality.
• Stuffed pigeon with truffle
  Pigeon's iron-rich flesh and earthy truffle meet the wine's graphite spine.

History

Bernard and Matthieu Baudry bottled the first vintage of La Croix Boissee in 1999 from a south-facing limestone parcel at the top of the Cravant slope. The plot's clay-limestone soils produce a slower, denser wine than the river-terrace cuvees.

1. 1999: First vintage of La Croix Boissee
2. 2014: Full organic certification confirmed

Facts

Producer

Domaine Bernard Baudry · visiting guide

Grapes

Cabernet Franc (100%)

Classification

Chinon AOC

Oak

18 months in 300L oak demi-muids, 10 percent new

ABV

13.5%

Price

EUR 28 to 45 at retail

Drinking window

8 to 25 from vintage

First vintage

1999

Organic

ORGANIC CERTIFIED

Vegan

Yes (no animal-derived fining)

Frequently asked about La Croix Boissee

Tags