Today’s offer is a bittersweet one. Marc Deschamps’ Pouilly-Fumés are some of the most adored–and most frequently featured–wines here at SommSelect. But Marc has sold his estate, and 2022 was the last vintage he made. But he’s ending on an undeniable high note! In this single bottle you’ve got everything we loved about Marc and his wines: the head spinning mineral aromatics, the deft texture, the upfront deliciousness combined with an undeniable capacity to age. This is serious Sauvignon Blanc, ready to stand toe to toe with the great whites of the world, hailing as it does from 70-year-old vines in the Deschamps’ most prized vineyard. Of course, we’d be remiss not to mention maybe our favorite thing about Marc’s wines, and that’s the frankly insane value contained within. Whether you’ve been following along with every Deschamps offer or you’re new to the estate, “Les Champs de Cri” is a bottle you can’t afford to miss!
Deschamps calls the tiny town of Les Loges home. The hamlet is located just outside the region’s namesake, Pouilly-Sur-Loire. Here he farms an incredible 8.5-hectare collection of Sauvignon Blanc and Chasselas vines. They’re all planted in the iconic Kimmeridgian limestone, which imbues his wines with a thrumming minerality that’s often missing in other Pouilly-Fumé. This band of chalky marine fossils contributes to the rocky tension we find in everything from Chablis to great Champagne, and it’s this tension that we feel places Marc’s wines alongside the best in the Loire Valley.
“Les Champs de Cri” is Marc’s most prized holding. This is a site regarded by locals as the appellation’s Grand Cru. In a region where vines are typically ripped up and replanted once their yields start dropping around 25 years of age, “Les Champs de Cri” is a marvel. The young vines here are 60 years old, with most over 80. As with all his vineyards, Marc farms “Les Champs de Cri” organically, without any herbicides or insecticides. He hand harvests it, ferments spontaneously in tank, and gives it extended lees aging before bottling. It all stands in sharp contrast to the standard Pouilly-Fumé model, in which wines are quickly fermented with cultured yeast and rushed into bottle so as to land first in export markets. In short, Marc pays his venerable terroir the respect it’s due, resulting in a truly singular expression of Sauvignon Blanc.
The 2022 Deschamp “Les Champs de Cri” pours a limpid yellow-green with flecks of silver. The nose is everything we love about great Sauvignon Blanc–firstly, a piercing minerality that screams with Kimmeridgian chalkiness. Behind it comes ripe citrus fruit, bitter orange and ruby red grapefruit, rounded out by just-ripe white peach and fresh-cut yellow apple. Sauvignon Blanc’s iconic greenness is present, but it takes the form of herbs and savor rather than piercing vegetal notes. On the palate, the medium body and ripe stone fruit is backed by whirring mineral notes, a tactile chalky sense that lasts for minutes. It’s vibrant, complex, and refreshing right now, and “Les Champs de Cri” will really start to show off after a few years in your cellar. Marc and his wines will be missed, but we couldn’t ask for a better send off!
