Domaine Baud

About Domaine Baud

Our estate history dates back to 1742, when Jean-François Baud started working as a pieceworker in Le Vernois. The family house accomodated all the following generations that where already listed in the town archives before the 1789 French revolution, earning their livings from mixed farming.
In 1950, René BAUD, the 7th generation, rebuilt the vineyard which had suffered from the phylloxera crisis as well as the two World Wars. At that time, 4 hectares of vines were cultivated.

In 1978, the 8th generation started running the winery (Jean Michel BAUD and Alain BAUD), and gave the company a fresh boost by creating the official estate "GAEC Baud Père et Fils". Thanks to their tireless hardwork, the vineyard was progressively extended from 4 to 20 hectars of vines. It is currently their pride, namely to have experienced 38 harvests! Jean Michel BAUD was in charge of the vineyard, his brother, Alain BAUD, was responsible for wine-making and trade. In 2014, the winery was certified « Terra Vitis » an environmental-friendly label.

January 1st, 2016, is a significant turning point as the 9th Generation has taken the reins of the estate: Bastien, 23 years old, is in charge of the vineyard and the wine-making process, while Clémentine, 25 years old, is taking care of trade and management. Since their succession, the estate has grown of 6 additional hectares. So begins a new chapter.

Representative Biography

Bastien Baud, Owner & Winemaker & Clémentine Baud, Owner

My brother Bastien, studied wine and vines for 4 years before coming back to the winery. During his study, he had the chance to travel in every wine-region in France to learn about different technics.
Me, Clémentine, started studying languages ( English, German and Russian) before deciding to take over the winery with my brother. That is the reason why, after this first graduation, I studied Trade and Commerce of the wine field. I wanted to be able to lead the company properly, so I passed another certificate of managment and accounting.
When we both finished our studyies we then took over the winery on the first of January 2016. It took about one year to succeed in the transmission.
Currently we both work at the winery but have very different tasks, Bastien takes care of the vineyard and the wine making process and Ideal with the commercial aspect, management and accounting.
Bastien manages the wines until it is bottled. Then, I will take over until the after-sale service.
Both of us are very differenties, however this allows us to compliment each other. This way we are stronger, we share everything and get on very well.

We love cool climate Chardonnay for several reasons :
First of all, we come from this type of region, using this grape variety. It is in our blood, part of our identity.
Then, the cool climate we have allows us to pruduce well-balanced wine (with acidity and freshness)
To finish, thanks to these two facts, we can create very different expressions of Chardonnay, according to our practices.

Why We're Cool

We are located in the heart of the Jura vineyard: Le Vernois. The altitude is not that high, with about 350m; but we enjoy a semi-continental climate. It can be very hot in summer, but quite cold in winter (minus 5 or 10 degrees). In average, we have 1,200 mm annual rainfall. The mean temperature of 11.8°C, 1,800-1,900 hours of sunshine annually. We also have a lot of hazards: rain, spring frost, hailstorms (more and more recurrent)

The Jura vineyard benefits from the past history: 230 million years ago, Jura was under a sea, this is how Limey clays and limestone built up. 65 mya the land began emerging from the sea and the Alps began to form. As a result, sedimentary rocks of the Jura mountains appeared to form a series of folded layers: The PLATEAUX. Today the vineyard lies on complex soil layers of Jurassic, Liassic and Triassic origin. The Main soils are LIMESTONE and MARL
Regarding the winemaking process, it is interesting for us to work with different plots, different areas of Chardonnay plantings. Of course, the terroir in an important notion, however, thanks to the climate, we benefit from very nice acidity. The acidity is different according to the cuvée. Crémant blanc brut, for instance, keeps its freshness with notes of citrus fruits.

There is another Chardonnay that we will age in oak barrels (one more time, thanks to the climate we have, otherwise we could not let it age as long as we do). Because the acidity protects the wine and it’s ageing potential.