If you are passionate about French white wine, today’s remarkable Pouilly-Fumé from Marc Deschamps needs to be in your glass as soon as possible. This is a truly singular wine, one with such uncommon richness and length we’ve nicknamed it “The Bâtard-Montrachet of the Loire.”
Never heard of Deschamps? Not convinced a Pouilly-Fumé could rank among the best whites in France, if not all of Europe? This limited-edition cuvée—only bottled in outstanding vintages and produced in eyedropper quantities—will not merely convince you but practically demand you join us in the small but growing cult of Deschamps loyalists. If the late Didier Dagueneau was Pouilly-Fumé’s rock star, Deschamps is its talisman—a standard-bearer of excellence for more than 30 years, quietly crafting profound old-vine Sauvignon Blanc in the hamlet of Les Loges. “Vinéalis” is exceptional wine in the most literal sense: Fermented and aged in oak, during which time it is aged on its lees to develop further complexity, this is a richly layered ‘exception’ to the steely, racy Pouilly-Fumé rule. Only about 50 cases make it to the US in any given vintage, and we’re always in the middle of the ensuing scrum, prying away as many bottles as possible for SommSelect subscribers. This will change the way you think about Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc, and it remains shockingly under-priced—meaning you can afford to grab all six of the bottles we’re allocating to each purchaser today.
We’ve offered several previous vintages of the Vinéalis cuvée, so its story may be familiar to some: Deschamps farms an 8.5-hectare collection of vineyards rooted in the Kimmeridgian limestone soil of Les Loges, which is just north of the appellation’s namesake village, Pouilly-Sur-Loire. Four of his parcels fall within the Pouilly-Fumé AOC: “La Côte,” “Les Griottes,” “Les Vignes de Berge,” and finally, the most prized single vineyard, “Les Champs de Cri.” Champs de Cri’s “young vines” are 60+ years old, but for Vinéalis, Marc sets aside fruit from an even older corner of the vineyard. The result is a wine that miraculously combines the piercing minerality of top-tier Sancerre, the brooding mystery of mature Savennières or Vouvray, and the depth and length of Grand Cru Chablis. It is a mind-expanding, one-of-a-kind expression of Loire Valley terroir and a master class in French white wine.
The Autumn crush at Deschamps is 100% manual and definitively old school. There are no mechanical harvesters; just a few sets of hands methodically picking and sorting into small baskets. Fermentation of this wine occurs in neutral French oak barrels and only with the aid of the indigenous airborne yeasts in Marc’s vineyards and cellar. So, while most of this region’s wine is fermented and bottled quickly after harvest in a rush to be first to export market, Marc waits many months before even racking his wine off the lees, transferring it back into to neutral French oak barrels and bringing it to the cold basement of his next-door neighbor, where it ages until the following Autumn.
I cannot stress enough how much depth and character this slow, thoughtful process adds to the wine. And I really can’t understand the price given the quality—other than to say that there hasn’t historically been a huge market for barrel-aged, late-release Pouilly-Fumé. Well, more for us, then!
In the glass, the 2018 Vinéalis has a light golden-yellow core, transitioning to green and silver at the rim. Initially, the wine rises from the glass with classic Loire Valley citrus and green herb aromas, supported by a complex web of lees- and fermentation-derived scents of raw honey, grapefruit peel, fresh-baked bread, beeswax, and chamomile. Take a sip of this full-bodied, textured Sauvignon and it just explodes across the palate with brilliant notes of lime zest, Gravenstein apple, Meyer lemon, grapefruit pith, white peony, crushed limestone, and white mushrooms. It’s a profound white wine that comes at you in waves, like the best whites of Burgundy, and as with young white Burgundy, I’d recommend decanting this ’18 at least 30 minutes before serving at 45-50 degrees in all-purpose white wine stems. A larger Burgundy bowl would be fun, too, as there is no shortage of aromatic fireworks going on here. Try to save a few bottles for revisiting over the next 5-10 years, as this wine has a legendary track record for aging. As for a food pairing, I’d love it with a classic Loire-style chèvre, but this wine really has “main-course” aspirations. Don’t hesitate to pump up the aromatic herb component in the attached seafood chowder recipe: It’ll make the combination even better!
