Thomas Batardière

Thomas Batardière is a passionate, unabashed winemaker who comes to the whole arena from a different angle than many other natural vignerons in Anjou. Born in 1980 in Angers, he studied anthropology, but in 2008 while working as a filmmaker, Batardière became deeply interested in natural wine. Abandoning his previous career, he worked as a sommelier first but was more drawn to winemaking; not long thereafter he decided to work with Mathieu Vallée at Château Yvonne in Saumur. Articulate and thoughtful, Batardière quickly became Mathieu Vallée’s right-hand man, working closely at the domaine while also taking the two-year viticulture course in Beaune.

After three years of being mentored by Vallée, in 2012 Batardière finally began his own project in Rablay-sur-Layon (Maine-et-Loire, Anjou). He started by purchasing a few hectares of the variety with which he has the most affinity—Chenin Blanc—but as he puts it, “without a cave, without a house, without a tractor—just a pruner and those two hectares of vines.” The winery was built in 2014, along with his house, right next door to Richard Leroy, another fine grower in Rablay-sur-Layon with whom Batardière is close. In 2015, all of the vineyards were certified biodynamic by Demeter, a process that Thomas began implementing right away—he’s a committed advocate for this style of holistic farming and doesn’t shy away from its more esoteric dimensions.

Here’s a little blurb about what biodynamics means to Thomas, as it’s always of interest to hear a grower speak to the process in this way:

“Biodynamics aims to heighten the general acoustics, meaning that it allows the vines to communicate better with their environment, more deeply from the earth to the cosmos. Biodynamics also allows the winemaker and the plants to better interact. For this, three fundamental practices are at work: preparations 500, 501, and Maria Thun.

The 500 is cow manure in a cow horn that is buried during autumn and winter. This preparation aims to better communicate with the earth. It’s sprayed in spring.

The 501 is silica and quartz in a cow horn that is buried during spring and summer. This helps the vine to better communicate with its astral environment, air, vibrations, and the vibes and movements of the planets. It’s sprayed during spring and summer, during the period of vegetation.

Finally, Maria Thun is a compost of cow manure that receives all of the preparations. It’s a compost made in summer and sprayed after harvest.

Biodynamics brings life to the plant, the parcel, and the entire domaine, leaving it more rich and complex. And that shows in the wines. A living wine is better expressed and with a greater variety.”

Thomas’ vineyard surface area now equals 3.5ha—2.5 Chenin Blanc, .85 Grolleau, and .15 Cabernet Franc. We receive only a small quantity of these luminous wines, as a result, but we are always enchanted by their gentle, mineral, gauzy character—underpinned by deep fruit and a fine robust physical texture in the wines themselves. They are somehow powerful, pretty, and ethereal all at once; it is an atypical expression of Anjou, one that could only come from this intuitive winemaker.

'Biodynamics aim to heighten the general acoustics…It allows the vine to communicate better with its environment, more deeply from the earth to the cosmos.'