Sauvignon Le Petit Lieu Dit 2025, Baudry-Dutour

Le Petit Lieu-Dit is 100% Sauvignon Blanc from a single estate parcel in the Rouilly lieu-dit at Ligré, just south of the Vienne River and the Chinon appellation. After several years spent searching for the right terroir, Baudry-Dutour planted the southeast-facing, clay-limestone site in 2012. The certified-organic fruit is harvested at night to preserve its aromatic freshness, then quickly pressed and fermented at low temperature in stainless steel. Citrus and grapefruit lead into lychee and white flowers, with brisk acidity and a clean, chalky finish providing shape underneath. It has the lift and precision associated with Loire Sauvignon, but enough fruit to keep it from feeling severe. Pour it as an aperitif or alongside oysters, grilled fish, shellfish, chèvre, asparagus and other spring vegetables.

About the Winery

Baudry-Dutour began with a friendship. In 1993, sixth-generation Chinon grower Christophe Baudry of Domaine de la Perrière met Jean-Martin Dutour, a newly graduated agricultural engineer and oenologist who had arrived to direct nearby Domaine du Roncée. The two began sharing equipment, experience and ideas, then formally joined forces in 2003. Their portfolio later expanded to include Château de Saint-Louans and, in 2009, the historic Château de La Grille, along with estates in Touraine and Bourgueil.

That scale could easily produce anonymous Loire wine, but the company organizes its work around distinct properties and parcels. Cabernet Franc remains central in Chinon, joined by Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc elsewhere in the portfolio. Baudry-Dutour describes its approach as conservation viticulture: soil life, agronomy and environmental protection come before fashionable dogma, with estates progressing toward organic certification at different rates. In the cellar, stainless steel, careful extraction and measured élevage are used according to the wine rather than as a house recipe. The result is a broad range, but the guiding idea remains simple: preserve the identity of each site and let Chinon's natural freshness do some of the talking.