Merlin-Cherrier Sancerre | Sauvignon Blanc | 2020

This fantastic wine comes from fourteen hectares of vines in Bué, one of the principal hamlets surrounding the old walled town of Sancerre. That town, once a Protestant stronghold, was sacked in the 16th century and again in the 17th during the Wars of Religion. It was a stronghold because Sancerre commands the highest hill above the Loire River, rising above a landscape of hills on the east side of the river (the appellation of Pouilly-Fumé across the river has little of Sancerre’s muscular hills and dales).

Bué’s wines tend to be influenced by the caillottes, making this hamlet’s distinguished whites recognizable by their broadly floral aromas, their finesse, and their precision.

The classique wine reflects Bué’s chalky terroir beautifully with its paradoxical generous precision (concentrated elegance might be a better way of saying this). This is a blend of parcels from both soil types totaling 11.16 hectares (27.5 acres).