Show-Stopping Sauvignon

New Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre from Loire legends Jonathan Didier Pabiot and Gérard Boulay
Show-Stopping Sauvignon
Sauvignon Blanc’s inherent nobility has never been in doubt, even if it has been a victim of its own success. But it’s one thing to treat a wine with respect, quite another to approach it with awe. These two transcendental growers wring every last ounce of pristine mineral purity from Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre. The intricate detail and pulsing energy they achieve match the best white wines grown anywhere.

Domaine Jonathan Didier Pabiot is centred on the stony caillottes of Les Loges located on the banks of the Loire River, but its vineyards stretch across the entire Pouilly-Fumé appellation. The soils vary considerably, and this geological range gives Pabiot access to mature vines on both Kimmeridgian marl and silex, an allowance Jonathan uses to full advantage in his range of single-terroir bottlings.

Already certified organic, this became the first Pouilly-Fumé domaine to achieve biodynamic certification in 2016. Pabiot dislikes green Sauvignon flavours and avoids them with impeccable farming and low yields of ripe fruit, instead realising an amplitude and richness few in the region dare to achieve. Elisa, the entry-level Pouilly Fumé, is nuanced, silky and chiselled. Aubaine floats out of the glass with enigmatic Alsace-like perfumes and lees-polished texture. Then, you have the smoke and chalk-infused intensity of Luminance. Each is a charismatic French white that articulates the stony soils of Pouilly-Fumé like few others.

Across the river, Gérard Boulay distils Chavignol with effortless precision. Despite its proximity to the town of Sancerre, this small village (about one-third of the size of the Chablis Grand Cru) has a proud identity of its own. It commands such renown because the steep Kimmeridgian terroir transcends the variety grown here: the wines are more fleshy and opulent. In the hands of the best growers, Chavignol is a wine with a rippling Chablis-like texture and characteristics of stone fruit and ripe citrus shot through with fresh-cut herbs and steely minerality. They are wines with enormous, seductive, earthy appeal—Chavignol first, Sancerre second and Sauvignon third.

Boulay’s new-release 2023 is a beauty. It appears here alongside a serious and seriously delicious Chavignol Pinot Noir rosé from the same vintage, as well as the exceptional 2022 single-parcel wines we unveiled at the end of last year. We cannot recommend them highly enough.

The Wines

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Elisa 2023
Added

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Elisa 2023

Previously labelled Prélude and now named after the winegrower’s youngest, Elisa, this is the first Pouilly in the range. It’s drawn from the domaine’s younger vines, and shrewd yields and precise farming elevate this above the norm. The vineyards cover the gamut of Pouilly’s soil types from a selection of lieux-dits, including limestone, silica and flint. The grapes are pressed as bunches with some crushing for structure, and aging occurs in stainless steel tanks on the lees for eight to 12 months. Despite the price, this bottling is the domaine’s smallest. It’s also the most citrusy, oozing fleshy ripe lemon, grapefruit pith and flecked with florals and juicy white fruit, all neatly cosseted by chalky salinity. It’s a great window into the Pabiot style.

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Elisa 2023
Added
Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Aubaine 2022
Added

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Aubaine 2022

Pabiot’s first single-terroir Pouilly-Fumé comes from mature vines in Tracy-sur-Loire on caillottes, a weathered limestone soil of Portlandian origin with lots of stones on the surface. Specifically, Aubaine is hand-harvested from one hectare of Les Champs de Cris high above the river on a plateau—a vineyard Pabiot describes as “a joy to work”. Aubaine and Luminance are made identically. Both are hand-harvested, naturally vinified and raised mostly in concrete—with 20% old oak and porcelain amphora—for 18 months. So, the difference comes down purely to the two terroirs: caillottes versus terres blanches.

Aubaine translates as ‘something to appreciate’, and this is the marginally more approachable of the two single-vineyard wines we offer today. It shimmies out of the glass with smoky yellow fruit, ground almond and marjoram herbal tones. Riper citrus notes on the palate join gliding texture, all framed by cool, zesty structure. It’s easy to see why Pabiot has had his run-ins with the appellation’s tasters; for all the best reasons; there’s nothing typical about this stimulating Blanc Fumé de Pouilly.

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Aubaine 2022
Added
Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Luminance 2022
Added

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Luminance 2022

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.

Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly-Fumé Luminance 2022
Added
Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre à Chavignol 2023
Added

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre à Chavignol 2023

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 in tank, on lees, with a small volume also fermented 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 has made this humble grower one of France’s most respected vignerons. 

It’s a fleshier release than last year, and you can look forward to flavours of intense candied citrus, sweet herbs, Kaffir lime and white stone fruit intertwined with a lovely rocky texture alongside deliciously salty, mineral vibrancy, caraway spice and mouthwatering phenolic structure. It finishes with stony definition, chalky cut and great length. The first wine in the range is already one of the finest expressions of Sauvignon Blanc you are likely to find.

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre à Chavignol 2023
Added
Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Rosé Sibylle 2023
Added

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Rosé Sibylle 2023

Given its size, Sancerre is home to a disproportionate number of France’s great rosé wines. Think, to name a few, Alphonse Mellot, Cotat and Vacheron. We have only been shipping this rosé in recent vintages because (to be honest) we didn’t know it existed until then. We asked Gérard why he hadn’t offered us the wine before. “You didn’t ask,” he replied. There’s a lesson there. Anyway, this gorgeous rosé is drawn from 35- to 50-year-old Pinot Noir vines—explicitly grown to make rosé—on the steep hillside of Chavignol. Boulay selects from roughly 0.8 hectares, sometimes across a little more in vintages that are difficult for reds (which 2023 wasn’t).

This fruit was hand-harvested and macerated for 24 hours. The press wine and free-run juice were fermented wild (vinified separately). Boulay blocks the malolactic conversion to keep tension, and no oak is involved. The new release opens with mineral-accented red berries, juicy, mouthwatering watermelon, mint and orange peel. Bustling with clarity and crunchy vibrancy, the palate is pure silk, with an array of pretty red fruit and grape-skin flavours punctuated by crunchy freshness. Great length, too. A serious and seriously delicious Chavignol rosé.

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Rosé Sibylle 2023
Added
Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Clos Beaujeu 2022
Added

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Clos Beaujeu 2022

Le Clos de Beaujeu is one of Boulay’s thoroughbred historic sites. Boulay farms two parcels in this terroir, including one within the original clos of this vineyard, established by the monks of Beaujeu in the Middle Ages. This parcel is historically known as Le Grand Clos. For this reason, Boulay names this wine Clos de Beaujeu rather than the more ubiquitous Cul de Beaujeu. In his book Le Vignoble de Chavignol, Thibaut Boulay notes that this vineyard first appears in documents dating to 1328 as the Clausus de Bellojoco, indicating this terroir’s age-old origins.

Vines on this slope of Kimmeridgian limestone and clay (terre blanches) sit between 30 and (a remarkable) 110 years old. The soils here are particularly rocky—limestone-rich and strewn with fossils—making this parcel difficult to farm. A second, even steeper parcel at a 60% gradient lies closer to the village. These southeast-facing plots make the Clos de Beaujeu the source of some of the domaine’s most structured and nervy wines. This cuvée ferments spontaneously and rests in large, upright cask (60%) and three- and four-year-old 300-litre barrels (40%) for 10 months.

The 2022 season has yielded a special Clos Beaujeu that promises to age for decades. Right now, there is a racy, floral and mineral attack underscored by citrus oil, while the palate is long and seamless, wreathed in sea spray and Mirabelle plum favour with a savoury edge. Closes with exceptional focus and grip on the long and still quite reserved finish. Fabulous. Gerard Boulay recently opened a 2001 for us that was singing. This wine also has decades ahead of it, yet is so well-balanced that those curious can certainly drink it in its youth with great pleasure.

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Clos Beaujeu 2022
Added
Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre La Côte 2022
Added

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre La Côte 2022

First made as a single parcel in 2010, La Côte comes from the majestic La Grande Côte vineyard (sometimes referred to as La Côte d’Amigny), a south/southeast-facing hillside on the outskirts of Chavignol. La Côte has quickly become one of the heavyweights of Boulay’s range. This is the domaine’s coolest terroir and the last to be picked. The site’s pure Kimmeridgian limestone soils and the late picking date deliver density and absurd precision on the palate. Vinified and aged in three- and four-year-old barrels, the terroir gives a more expressive style than Monts-Damnés, yet one that still bristles with tension and mineral notes.

If the vines are still relatively young by this domaine’s standards (a good 20 years all the same), they nevertheless express the mineral essence of this limestone terroir with incredible intensity. As always, La Côte is the most open of the single-vineyard wines, this year leading with ripe citrus—in the orange/bergamot spectrum—and crystalline passionfruit aromas. The palate is deep, complex, radiant and focused, with a great core of spicy fruit, driving acids and lovely purity, tapering to a super long, chalk-licked finish. It has everything to go toe-to-toe with a top Premier Cru Burgundy.


Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre La Côte 2022
Added
Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Comtesse 2022
Added

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Comtesse 2022

This rare bottling comes from just 0.4 hectares of 70-year-old vines in the Comtesse lieu-dit at the chalky epicentre of Les Monts-Damnés. For hundreds of years or more, locals have considered this vineyard the finest single terroir of Chavignol. According to Thibaut Boulay, the first mention of the ‘Montdampni’ appeared in documents held by the Abbaye de Saint-Satur in 1252. In his Le Vignoble de Chavignol, Thibaut then reminds us that at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878, the Comtesse lieu-dit was already considered a true star of the Sancerrois, its wines served on the most renowned tables of northern France. As another marker of its historical reverence, the Comtesse parcel was only grafted after 1945; before that, it remained the last ungrafted white vineyard in France, as La Romanée-Conti was for red grapes.

The soil composition is pure Kimmeridgian limestone and consists of a miserly 30- to 40-centimetre layer of topsoil over solid limestone bedrock. This brings intense minerality and warmth as the rocky soil absorbs the sun’s heat and re-radiates it at night. Yet it is also a cooler, less exposed place, so it always produces fully ripe fruit and intense freshness while also finer and more restrained than a typical Monts-Damnés—hence, the historical fame.

This has diamond-cut clarity allied to perfectly ripe fruit intensity that are the hallmark of this release—and there’s also something more elemental. Again, the sunny season has done nothing to blunt the razor-edge precision of this grower’s Sancerre. Marked by the soil rather than the sun, this wine often incorporates the greatest elements of all Boulay’s vineyards. It has a seductive texture and nectarine-like fruit, yet also thoroughbred restraint, great line, mineral clarity, and box-office chalky length. A Grand Cru in all but name, 20 years will not weary this astonishing young Sancerre.

Domaine Gérard Boulay Sancerre Comtesse 2022
Added

“The new Didier Dagueneau? That’s easy; it’s his son, Benjamin. But Benjamin has a soul brother, Jonathan Pabiot. Together – well, each at his own domaine – they are making the best, most probing, and most exciting Pouilly-Fumés.” Jacqueline Friedrich, Wines of the Loire, Volume 1

“Jonathan Pabiot sees what most of us can’t in Pouilly-Fumé: a compelling appellation with distinctive soils and the ability to show itself with specificity and depth.”
Jon Bonné, The New French Wine

“To my palate, Gérard Boulay is undoubtedly on the top tier of producers in Chavignol…in terms of purity and daringly racy, I do wonder whether he shouldn’t be placed at the very top of the tier. I certainly find his wines sufficiently exciting, breath-taking in their assured poise, to suggest this might be the case.”
Chris Kissack, Winedoctor.com

“Another great of Chavignol, the Boulays’ first record of farming grapes there date to 1380, when the Clos de Beaujeu was already recognized as a great white wine. It still is today. Wines from these Kimmeridgian-soil vineyards often have the density and earthiness of Chablis.”
Rajat Parr, The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste

Other Recent Releases

  • Holiday Reading and Christmas Gifting
    Holiday Reading and Christmas Gifting
    In the run-up to the gifting season, we’re delighted to offer special pricing on select...
    In the run-up to the gifting season, we’re delighted to offer special pricing on selected books from the IFW library. Here at International Fine Wi...

    Read more

  • Domaine aux Moines
    Domaine aux Moines
    Domaine aux Moines, a now 12-hectare estate set in the heart of one of the Loire’s most...
    Domaine aux Moines, a now 12-hectare estate set in the heart of one of the Loire’s most enigmatic vineyards, La Roche-aux-Moines, was founded in 19...

    Read more

  • Bannockburn
    Bannockburn
    Where there is smoke, there is fire. It’s not just the quality of Bannockburn’s Chardon...
    Where there is smoke, there is fire. It’s not just the quality of Bannockburn’s Chardonnay and Pinot that has transformed over the years. “When you...

    Read more

  • Spinifex
    Spinifex
    Spinifex’s portfolio is stacked with quality, yet two wines play a particularly signifi...
    Spinifex’s portfolio is stacked with quality, yet two wines play a particularly significant role in Pete and Magali’s story. Indigene has been a co...

    Read more

  • Bernard Defaix: The Director’s Cut
    Bernard Defaix: The Director’s Cut
    Today, we offer a new tranche of Defaix’s cracking 2022 wines, plus the first arrivals ...
    Today, we offer a new tranche of Defaix’s cracking 2022 wines, plus the first arrivals from 2023. The latest ‘22s include the Côte de Léchet Réserv...

    Read more

  • Pyramid Valley
    Pyramid Valley
    A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of meeting with Pyramid Valley winemaker, Huw Kinc...
    A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of meeting with Pyramid Valley winemaker, Huw Kinch. Not only is Kinch a deeply knowledgeable guy―as the Frenc...

    Read more

  • Thomas Wines
    Thomas Wines
    With spring comes Semillon. The 2024 season went by in a flash, and the wines are rarin...
    With spring comes Semillon. The 2024 season went by in a flash, and the wines are raring to go. Andrew Thomas can't recall an earlier harvest in hi...

    Read more

  • Robert Weil
    Robert Weil
    Like Italy and France, Germany has more than its fair share of revered historic hillsid...
    Like Italy and France, Germany has more than its fair share of revered historic hillside vineyards. Few of these can match the history and majesty ...

    Read more

  • Quealy: New Release Pinots
    Quealy: New Release Pinots
    “2023 will be remembered as one of those great vintages,” says Tom McCarthy. “It was an...
    “2023 will be remembered as one of those great vintages,” says Tom McCarthy. “It was an exceptional year with perfect ripening conditions—there jus...

    Read more

View All Offers

More Content

Read more on Domaine Jonathan Dider Pabiot Read more on Domaine Gérard Boulay
Welcome