About this WINE
Andre Dezat
One of the most respected of Loire estates, as well as a long-standing Berry Bros. & Rudd supplier, the Dezat family's 38 hectares covers 6 villages in Sancerre and 4 in Pouilly-Fumé incorporating the key soil types of 'terres blanches' (ancient active limestone), 'caillottes' (stony clay) and 'silex' (flint).
Simon and Louis Dezat represent the fourth generation, taking the domaine to new heights by making incremental changes to improve the wine more time is spent among the vines, fine-tuning the vine, while a sorting table has been recently adopted to select only the healthiest fruit.
Their ripe understated Sancerre delivers year-in, year-out, while the Domaine Thibault Pouilly-Fume is a model of precision and elegance.
Pouilly-Fumé
Pouilly-Fumé is a famous white Sauvignon Blanc appellation located on the right bank of the Loire River.
Compared to Sancerre on the opposite bank, the Pouilly-Fumé appellation is approximately half the size at 1,200 hectares, and tightly-focused around the villages of St Andelain and Les Loges on a fairly homogeneous, south-west facing slope. The appellation's soils are divided between limestone-rich Kimmeridgean and Portlandian (less active calcium) clay, with the cherry on the cake being the red, flinty clay soils clustered around the St Andelain knoll.
Top vineyards in Pouilly-Fumé include Les Cocques, Les Bois and Les Cornets. The result is a floral, finely-poised yet powerful nose, with a noticeably limestone-like dry palate kept taut by a fine structure. Indeed such is the stony intensity of a good Pouilly-Fumé that an increasing number of producers are ageing their best crus in French oak, to good effect.
Recommmended producers: Didier Dagueneau, Alain Cailbourdin, André Dezat and the up-and-coming Nicolas Gaudry
Sauvignon Blanc
An important white grape in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley that has now found fame in New Zealand and now Chile. It thrives on the gravelly soils of Bordeaux and is blended with Sémillon to produce fresh, dry, crisp Bordeaux Blancs, as well as more prestigious Cru Classé White Graves.
It is also blended with Sémillon, though in lower proportions, to produce the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It performs well in the Loire Valley and particularly on the well-drained chalky soils found in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where it produces bone dry, highly aromatic, racy wines, with grassy and sometimes smoky, gunflint-like nuances.
In New Zealand, Cloudy Bay in the 1980s began producing stunning Sauvignon Blanc wines with extraordinarily intense nettly, gooseberry, and asparagus fruit, that set Marlborough firmly on the world wine map. Today many producers are rivalling Cloudy Bay in terms of quality and Sauvignon Blanc is now New Zealand`s trademark grape.
It is now grown very successfully in Chile producing wines that are almost halfway between the Loire and New Zealand in terms of fruit character. After several false starts, many South African producers are now producing very good quality, rounded fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.
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Description
The nose is classic Pouilly-Fumé, with aromas of citrus, apple and grass, as well as a beguiling smoky note. The palate is relatively rich (owing to a warm vintage) yet fresh, with a long, mineral finish. This works a treat with dishes as diverse as goats’ cheese, oysters or tomates farcies.
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