Success can sometimes breed complacency, and for many seasoned wine professionals that is sadly the case with some Sancerre–it’s so ubiquitous and universally popular that many larger producers opt for simple, innocuous versions of what should be prime terroir. BUT, when a glass bursting with citrus and dripping with seashell minerals is set in front of you, it makes you snap to attention. That is what happened to us at SommSelect when we first encountered Domaine Curot. The amount of energy, lift, perfume, and all-around intensity in this bottle is breathtaking, and it reminds me, and everyone, that at its best Sauvignon Blanc can produce the most profoundly pleasurable wines. Domaine Curot has all the artisanal bona fides we look for, and the price remains very reasonable—in fact, in this inflationary wine market, Curot offers a welcome reminder of Sancerre’s enduring value. It’s ubiquitous for good reason: It delivers!
Fourth-generation winemaker Éric Louis traces his family roots in the region to 1860, when his great-grandmother, Pauline, was a pioneering producer of estate-bottled wines. The family’s 30 acres of vines are in the village of Vinon, southeast of Sancerre proper, and root in a mix of the region’s two principal soil types—limestone/clay and flint (silex). The latter is said to be a little more prominent in the Domaine Curot plots, and the slightly smoky character it imparts is readily evident in today’s ripe-yet-soil-expressive 2022. Sauvignon Blanc often gets overlooked when discussing the best white grapes for soil to glass transparency, but Éric shows us why Sancerre provides some of the most interesting studies in terroir anywhere. Of course good terroir needs excellent vineyard work to shine, and so he practices organic farming wherever possible (known as the lutte raisonnée, or “reasoned fight”) and eschews any sulfur additions during fermentation. The wines undergo only a light filtration and are given the lightest dose of sulfur possible at bottling.
When I said this wine snapped us to attention I wasn’t kidding. This is crystalline, high-energy Sancerre with an already-harmonious melding of fruit and earth notes. The 2023 edition still possesses some youthful austerity but the fruit component is substantial enough to make it highly enjoyable now. In the glass, it’s a glistening straw-gold with green and silver highlights, with textbook aromas of ripe citrus fruits, passionfruit, white peach, lime blossom, lemon balm and other aromatic herbs, oyster shells, and crushed white stones. It is medium-bodied and nicely textured on the mid-palate, having been aged only in steel tanks but subjected to regular lees-stirring during that period. Another overlooked fact about Sancerre is that it can age very well. I don’t think this is a 15+-year type of wine, but it would be really fun to check in with bottles over the next 3-5 years. That said, it’s prime dinner party season, and as we head into the holidays I would be surprised if any of us could keep our hands off a stash of this deliciously perfect-for-all-occasions wine!
