This Pinot Gris is grown in Reuilly, a little-known appellation in the Loire Valley. Made from just two-hectares of vines, it is simply charming. Pale onion-skin in colour with a lovely floral perfume, it is completely dry but with a reassuring mid-palate weight and richness. More of a vin gris than a rosé, this is the ideal light summer wine to be enjoyed either on its own or with lighter dishes. It makes a particularly good partner to Asian cuisine.  
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

We are delighted to have worked once again with the dependable David Sautereau to produce our 2017 Sancerre. The fruit here is grown on three different soil types, caillottes, terres blanches and marnes, giving the wine perfume, fruit and structure. The warm and sunny growing season has provided a generous wine, packed with yellow fruit notes and rounded off with a pleasant and refreshing citrus bitterness.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd

In between organising music concerts, playing in his band or fulfilling his duties as the current president of the BIVC, Daniel Chotard makes some wine. There have been vignerons in the Chotard family since 1789, but it was in 1992 that Daniel Chotard resumed work at the domaine. The domaine’s vines are situated on limestone slopes in the southwest of the region at Reigny near Crézancy-en-Sancerre, in the Loire. Daniel believes the terroir here is crucial in defining his wines. His aim is to produce a natural wine, true to its origins, with a fine aromatic profile.

A clean, crisp and quiet wine – the nose is restrained and green with lime zest, chalk, minerals and a grassy hint. Crunchy pear and a verdant edge show on the straight, restrained palate with a zing of acidity.

An ancient varietal, Pineau d’Aunis is fantastically hard to get right. The 2015 offers aromas of sour cherry, almond and fennel. On the palate it is wonderfully fresh and juicy, with black cherry, plum and what Eric describes as a “herbal elixir” all in evidence. Creamy generosity is held in subtle counterpoint by a fruit-skin, almost chalky astringency. He’s got this one right, for sure. Drink now to 2019.

Francois’s family are fortunate to own plots (amounting to 1.3ha) in the heart of this famous Chavignol escarpment, so giving their 25-30 year old vines a soil that has a good limestone/clay balance. Its strong, definite personality is unwavering from vintage to vintage; its quality assured. In 2013 it’s got emphatic presence, along with grapefruit & floral charm, plenty of white fruit flesh. The noble rot/botrytis played its card in Monts Damnes, hence the pulpy almost cassis notes on the palate, along with plenty of detail, while being all the while delicate and persistent. Yields were normal at 50hl/ha. 
David Berry Green - Loire buyer

At just 1ha30 in size, this is the biggest parcel held by the domaine. There is a real feeling of biting into a grape here, as the sudden burst of ripe, fleshy fruit takes you aback. The juicy white peach flavours then give way to a fine core of mineral tension, leaving the overall impression of fragility and delicacy underneath the initial brash exterior.
Gary Owen - Private Account Manager

The parcels of vines which make-up Didier's 'Silex' cuvee must be among his most coveted: great boulders of flint, old vines and perfect St. Andelain sites combine to deliver a voluminous and brilliantly pure wine of stature.

Just as Les Culs de Beaujeu is all about quiet velvety charm, so Les Monts Damnes is very much the crunchy one; broad, square quivering, it's perhaps Francois's most classic expression of Sancerre wine. In 2009 there's a marzipan richness about this wine, balanced by a distinctly pebble nettle character.

Francois Cotat has four plots among this large but consistently fine vineyard; a vineyard that stretches the breadth of the village's eastern escarpment, so facing west. Containing vines of approx. 30 yo, it's a wine that will grow grow, but should be drinkable from 2014/5.

The 2009 vintage was influenced by hail, draught hence an earlier smaller than average harvest, this is one of those rich sunny years where the personality of the vintage comes through stronger than that of the vineyard. Though Francois Cotat's 2009s come in at c. 15% abv they are balanced by the inherent minerality of his exceptional vineyards. (Such has been the climatic change that Francois hasn't needed to chaptalise since the 2004 vintage.)

Francois Cotat continues to make wine as his father Paul did; the domaine being born out of the split with Pascal Cotat in 1988. Francois joined the tiny but perfectly sited property in 1999, continuing to hand-harvest the fruit that is then vinified using wild yeasts aged in 80 yo oak barrels without any intervention. Francois reasons that the use of wild as opposed to selected yeasts enable his to be more digestible reflective of their origins. Neither fined nor filtered Francois continues to judicious levels of sulphur to guide the wines to full maturity. He follows the lunar cycle.
(David Berry Green) 

Richer, ‘bigger’ nose than Les Caillottes Anise/fennel. A step up in concentration. Excellent balance of acidity and fruit. Mineral, with outstanding potential. Still a little closed but excellent length. Very little sugar, less than 3g/l. Most immediately appealing of the selection.
Adam Bruntlett
 
Francois’s Monts Damnés is clearly the best example of this famous Sancerre Cru! Faithful to the nervy vintage, this wine is cool, compact, a taut, tightly coiled core of briny minerality, such tension, his use of old oak in vinification giving this wine a spectacular Island malt saltiness, very succinct, needs time, plenty of time, drinking from 2015 to 2025.
David Berry Green 

Nose very closed. Real richness here – definitely noticeable sugar (9g/l). Fruit and general feeling of weightiness, balanced with searing acidity. Reminiscent of a Savennières wine. A perception of warmth but everything works well. A big wine in all senses, rendering it beautifully balanced. Needs time, but will be the star of  François Cotat’s 2012 wines.
Adam Bruntlett

Sancerre La Grande Côte is the summit of Francois Cotat’s range, and justly so, from a magical vineyard on the border of Chavignol and Amigny, the 2012 example is taut, leesy, pure salin, delicate, more generous on the palate but also more structured, more unresolved, more complicated, less prepared to embrace you. Needs plenty of time, drink from 2017 to 2027.
David Berry Green