Clément Baraut
Mûrs-Érignés

Around 30 years ago, another one of our most cerebral winemakers took part in a revolution in viticulture. Anjou had been a place where people strived to make sweet wine from botrytized grapes, or else chaptalized swill in Bag-in-Boxes for supermarket consumption. It's hard to imagine today, but Baraut was part of only a handful of winemakers in the area who were interested in Biodynamic agriculture, and the notion that a vineyard might be happier if it wasn't saturated with chemicals. Baraut -- following Goethe more than Steiner -- believes that plants communicate with a rich language and tell the clued in vigneronne just what they need.

Clément arrived in the Loire in the late 80’s, and has spent every moment since helping to make natural wines, and spreading his expertise on the biodynamic method. Baraut, nicknamed 'the Druid', listened to vines and as a result helped to make some of the very first dry wines of quality in the area. Because the fruit was so great, he was able to use less sulfur, and obviously never needed to chaptalize.

Through Nicolas Joly, he picked up vineyards in Roche aux Moines and today tends these and a few other plots more or less himself. His relationship with his vineyards is incredibly important, and staying small is part and parcel to the mission of quality winemaking. He didn't eschew chemical intervention for the sake of it, he did it because that's what excellent fruit and quality wine required. Of course the downside is that we have almost no wine available, but what we do have is precious and cared for by someone who helped create the viticultural landscape we all know and love -- by someone who still inspires more innovation and courage for a new generation.

Clément is now focused mostly on his own domaine in Savennières, and most notably from the famous Roche aux Moines vineyard. And while fancy A.O.C.’s are not always our thing, great terroir always is. His wine is a testament to the fact that this patch of earth couldn’t be in better hands.

His negociant project is called Herbes Folles. On and off, a lot of this fruit comes from the estate, and herein lies the history of the name, Crazy Grass (vegetation). Clément is a follower of the 19th century scientist and scholar, Goethe, who gave him the belief that plants have a sensitivity and language like animals do. They don't like to be cut or pruned, and operate best as they grow in wild nature. As a result, the vines sort of grow free in a wild way: an "uncultivated" garden.

Clément doesn't trim leaves, do much in the way of pruning, or practice the universal technique of ébourgeonnage that's happening without exception at every vineyard we visit around this time of year. This is the practice of removing new shoots sprouting from the wood of the vine in spring. The idea is to direct energy into the branches grape growers have selected for fruit and for the following year's growth. As a result, Clément's vines have a number of shoots or branches that grow as they like. He pointed out some wild vines around the forest and told us that wild vines in nature never produce grapes with a potential alcohol of 14, 15, or 16% like we see more and more with climate change. It is not a natural part of the physiology of the plant. Our cultivation is what makes this possible, and so Clément's wines don't reach these heights of alcohol the way a lot of his neighbors' do.

He told us, "Plants take water, sunlight and minerals and make patterns with them." This is his understanding of viticulture and his justification of the hands-off attitude he takes to vineyard work. It has made him no friends in the AOC system, but his wines are more transparent and more of their place than any others in the region. There's a negative quality of absence that marks a lot of his wine. The water, sunlight, and minerals hanging together in a new pattern, unfettered and wild. A famous place like Savennières evokes a lot for us wine professionals, but Clément's wines show that a lot of these concepts are a result of artifice, and not what nature is happy to give on its own. Romantic stuff!