The Still & The VineSchool of Wine & Spirits
Domaine Patrick Baudouin Savennières Les Girardieres 2021
White WineIssue 58

Domaine Patrick Baudouin Savennières Les Girardieres 2021

Domaine Patrick Baudouin

$49NASSavennières, Loire Valley, France
Savennières is Chenin Blanc at its most demanding — structured, dry, and unyielding in youth. Patrick Baudouin farms biodynamically and lets the wine find its shape without forcing it. The 2021 offers mineral austerity now, but give it three to five years and it will repay patience generously. A charcoal-line wine if ever there was one.

Kit Aromas

Tasting Notes

Nose

Taut and mineral-driven, with green apple and citrus zest over a flinty, almost chalky base. A faint honeyed quality emerges with time in the glass.

Palate

Bone-dry and tensile. Apple and citrus form a lean, precise core, sharpened by the schist-derived minerality that defines Savennières. A woody, almost herbal undercurrent adds depth without weight, and a faint marzipan note surfaces on the second sip.

Finish

Long, dry, and stony, with green apple and a faint bitter almond quality that lingers.

Specifications
Varietal
Chenin Blanc
Blend
100% Chenin Blanc
Vineyards
Les Girardières, schist soils in Savennières
Alcohol
12.5%
Organic / Biodynamic
No
Skin Contact
No
Serve & Pair

Food Pairing

Pan-seared pike-perch with beurre blanc

The Story

Patrick Baudouin abandoned a career in journalism to resurrect old Chenin Blanc parcels on the steep schist slopes of Savennières, farming biodynamically and vinifying with minimal intervention in the Loire Valley.

Train These Aromas
Comments

Be the first to comment.

Leave a comment

0 / 4,000

First-time comments are reviewed before appearing. Be kind, be specific, no spam.

More White Wine Reviews
Terras Gauda Abadia de San Campio Albarino
White Wine

Terras Gauda Abadia de San Campio Albarino

Terras Gauda

Abadia de San Campio is a benchmark Albariño that demonstrates how Atlantic terroir marks its wines with an unmistakable saline signature—an impression as indelible as any char on oak. Precise, refreshing, and beautifully textured, it offers serious mineral complexity at a modest price and pairs effortlessly with the coastal cuisine it was born alongside.

$19
Dry Creek Chenin Blanc
White Wine

Dry Creek Chenin Blanc

Dry Creek Vineyard

Dry Creek Vineyard has championed Chenin Blanc in California for decades, and this bottling is a quiet testament to why the grape deserves more attention. It delivers warmth and generosity without excess—an approachable, food-friendly white that offers far more complexity than its modest price suggests. A wine that communicates comfort before you even find the words.

$14
Chablis, Louis Michel
White Wine

Chablis, Louis Michel

Louis Michel & Fils

Louis Michel & Fils is one of Chablis' great purists, eschewing oak entirely in favor of stainless steel to let the limestone terroir shine with absolute transparency. This is clarity through constraint made liquid—proof that restraint in winemaking yields the most eloquent expression of place. A benchmark village Chablis that punches well above its price.

$29
Famille Hugel Gewürztraminer Alsace 2022
White Wine

Famille Hugel Gewürztraminer Alsace 2022

Famille Hugel

Hugel's estate-level Gewürztraminer is an ideal entry into the grape — aromatic and expressive without tipping into heaviness. The 2022 vintage shows purity of fruit and the benefit of Alsace's continental climate, where warm days and cool nights preserve acidity in a variety that can lose it. This is the bottle to pair with spiced cuisine or to enjoy on its own as an education in aromatics.

$22