Biodynamic. The lieu-dit of Les Romains is named after the Roman road that led down to the Loire River crossing. It lies almost directly south of the town, over the fault line marking a vein of flint. While these soils may suggest a strong resemblance to nearby Pouilly-Fumé, the vines don’t have to dig deep before hitting pure limestone. The vineyard covers 1.9 hectares and is planted to a density of 9,000 vines per hectare. Vacheron and Gitton Père also tend vines in this great vineyard. In general terms, Mellot’s Les Romains gives you racier acidity and more lime and citrus than the nearby La Moussière. 

Like all Mellot’s wines, the grapes are handpicked, and here fermentation takes place in 13-hectolitre tronconique cask. The wine aged on fine lees for 12 months. It’s a lacy, super-charged Sancerre: firm yet fleshy, with succulent white orchard fruit and creamy citrus supported by the vibrant mineral backbone. Substantial texture entwines with mineral freshness, and the wine finishes with exceptional focus and length and a tingling note of chalk.

Biodynamic. This jaw-dropping Sancerre is drawn from the oldest vines in the Moussière vineyard (approximately 100 years of age), cropped at Grand Cru Burgundy levels (at the lower end of this range, in fact). The wine fermented and aged in 2,000-litre, tronconique wooden tanks for 12 months before a spell in steel on lees. Only 500 cases per year see the light of day. 

With its sister-in-arms, Edmond, Dix-Neuf is the antithesis of modern textbook Sancerre. Instead, it is an intense, arresting wine, unfolding in a dizzying array of candied citrus, gingerbread, crystalline tropical notes, pear sorbet and iodine. These complex aromas play behind virile, extract-rich structure and crackling inner tension. Imagine the intensity and texture of great white Burgundy but with the racy core of acidity of exceptional Riesling or Chenin Blanc. As difficult as it is to describe, this stacks up with the most distinctive whites on the planet. A super mineral, no-holds-barred Sancerre that makes a bold statement about what Sauvignon Blanc can be.

Jumping straight in at the deep end, Boulay’s entry-level is drawn from mature, 35- to 50-year-old vines rooted entirely in the limestone soils of Chavignol. The multiple sites are largely slopes on the Chavignol hillside terroirs of Les Chasseignes, Les Longues Fins and La Rue de Veaux. This is quite distinct from most Sancerre, derived from the plains, with more fertile and productive soils. Importantly, Boulay also includes fruit from younger vines on the “star” terroirs of La Grande Côte, Clos de Beaujeu and Monts Damnés.

The juice ferments spontaneously and rests for eight months on lees in a tank, with a small volume in a single large wooden cask. This is the only blended cuvée in the Boulay lineup, yet even here, we can taste the finesse, texture, and stony/earthy/salty minerality that have made this humble grower one of France’s most respected vignerons.

From a classically-styled Sancerre vintage, you get a wealth of citrus and orchard fruit with just a hint of boxwood and elderflower aromas. On the palate, it’s bright, crystalline and racy, finishing with stony definition and a mineral twang. As always, here Sauvignon Blanc, just like Chardonnay in Burgundy, is the messenger rather than the message.  

Monts-Damnés (pronounced mon-dannay) is perhaps the best-known vineyard in Chavignol. Drinking great juice from this site leaves you in little doubt that Chavignol is home to some of the most textural, mineral, uplifting and sublime Sancerre. Boulay’s bottling comes from 45-year-old vines on one of the steepest inclines of this majestic vineyard, a 40-degree south-facing plot on terres blanches (white, chalky clay and limestone) directly adjacent to Vatan’s Clos la Néorev vineyard. This parcel of vines gives a wine of great hedonism and complexity. Boulay vinifies this cuvée in three- to four-year-old Rousseau Tronçais oak casks before finishing its aging in large cask before bottling.

While the steeply sloped, south-facing Mont-Damnés is one of Chavignol’s warmest sites, this superb wine walks a perfect tightrope between ripeness and texture and that invigorating sense of tension that makes Boulay’s Sancerre so compelling. A distillate of its site, the new release is deep yet compact and rocky, awash with racy stone fruit, orange blossom and crushed oyster shell tempered by a mouthwatering mineral spine and a nibble of quinine and chalky phenolics. The marriage of density and energy is seemingly perfect. Again, give it time to blossom, or enjoy this stellar release young with ceviche, tuna tartare or sashimi—that kind of thing.

Formerly called Prédilection, this cuvée comes from a parcel of vines planted on terres blanches, or Kimmeridgian marl. This beautiful, steep, terraced vineyard close to the cellar in Les Loges was planted by Didier Pabiot, and the vines are now 50 years old on average. The very poor soil has an active lime content of over 70%, which makes the vines struggle, giving a saltier, more coiled style than Aubaine. In Burgundy terms, you could imagine the difference between Chablis and the Côte d’Or.

Luminance is a statement wine in the best sense, resonating with a level of mouthwatering vinosity and seamless flavour seldom seen in the region. The palate is polished, pure and tense, with a grippy density packed with chalky grip and wisps of smoke overlying the swell of quince, apricot stone and touch of exotic richness. Already exciting, it has the potential to grow into an enthralling Pouilly-Fumé, given the chance.

If single-site wines are rare as hen’s teeth in Touraine, this incisive Sauvignon Blanc makes a compelling case. A step up from the Ancorage label, it is drawn from vines aged between 20 and 50 years in the west-facing terroir of Les Puits aux Chiens. Situated on the right bank of the Cher River, it’s the highest point of the commune of Noyers, a cool terroir with shallow flint sands and white clay over Turonian limestone rock. 

In the cellar, the grapes were pressed as whole bunches and fermented with indigenous yeasts in a selection of used barrels ranging from 228 to 500 litres. These vessels include those made using oak staves from the nearby Loches forest, selected and aged by Valentin Desloges himself (and coopered by François Frères). The wine aged for 12 months with a single racking and plenty of lees contact. It was bottled by gravity without filtration. 

Twenty-twenty three was a beautiful year for Valentin Desloges, and many Sancerre or Pouilly Fume producers would be delighted to have this as their top cuvée. Free from obvious varietal flavours, it’s an incredibly focused, limpid, penetrating Sauvignon and, like all this grower’s whites, built around texture and detail rather than typicity. It’s so beautifully made, combining potent saline minerality with a silky depth that points to Valentin’s exceptional terroir.  

Organic. As you would expect from a producer of Corofin’s calibre, Meltwater’s Marlborough Sauvignon hits all the right notes, with considerably more texture and interest than this category typically delivers. Sourced from a small group of dedicated organic growers across the Wairau and Omaka Valleys, this wine gets the Rolls-Royce treatment. The fruit comes from carefully managed, low-cropping vineyards focused on vine health and purity of expression. The 2025 season was notably kind, with early flowering, a dry finish, and cool diurnal shifts that preserved acidity while building excellent flavour concentration in pristine harvested fruit.

As always, the winemaking was handled with a light but assured touch: gentle pressing, cool fermentation in stainless steel, and extended lees ageing through winter to build depth, cohesion and that signature supple texture. The result is a wine that remains dry, crisp and highly defined, yet carries a layer of generosity and softness that lifts it well beyond the norm. Ripe citrus and stone fruit sit neatly within a framework of tension and tangy energy, finishing with purity, detail and effortless drinkability. A standout release once again.

This is our second allocation of this limited single-vineyard release, which sits alongside the Springs Chardonnay and Korimako Pinot Noir. The fruit for Weaver is selectively harvested by hand from Sam and Mandy Weaver’s certified-organic, biodynamically farmed Churton vineyard. Huw Kinch says they chose this vineyard because it shows the heights Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc can reach. Churton sits 200 metres above sea level on a hillside between the Waihopai and Omaka Valleys. Pyramid Valley selected a parcel from the northeast-facing slope on loess above clay subsoil.

The grapes were picked on 31st March and fermented in concrete instead of oak this year (and all the better for it). The wine fermented with indigenous yeasts and was left on lees for eight months before a further four months’ aging in neutral oak. This is proper, grownup, unfiltered Sauvignon Blanc with contours of chalk surrounding a palate of sweet mint and juicy limes. Cracking texture, too, sculpted by mouth-watering energy and chalky drive. At once serene yet full of character—surely one of the most exciting and ambitious wines to come out of Marlborough’s southern hills, and doesn’t it work!