Loire 2021 Releases

This cuvée had formerly been known as Blanc Fumé. It is a blend of equal parts marl, clay, and flinty soils from across the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. It’s hardly fitting to call this Dagueneau’s ‘entry level’ wine, but it is probably their most accessible. There is ample green fruits and a superbly expressed chiselled texture.

Silex is one of the Dagueneau signature wines, and has brought an obscure name for a type of soil - flint - into the fine wine mainstream. The 2018 has a sublime power to it, and a smoky, ethereal perfume.

Pur Sang is French for thoroughbred, and his is indeed a first rate cuvée. It is a ripe and enticing style, with peachy fruit, and the toasty caress of a little new oak. Sublime winemaking, drawing out the weighty concentration of Sauvignon with the nervous and brilliant freshness of this region.

This is the only parcel Didier bought on the other side of the river in Sancerre, and he chose the appellation’s greatest site. It remains one of the defining wines of the Sancerre appellation to this day, expressing the profound complexity and regal power of the white Kimmeridgian marl soils of the famous slope.

This comes from a similar site to the Silex parcel, but is slightly lower and north-west facing, making it fractionally cooler. This means it excels in warm vintages. Indeed, tasting this, you’d never associate this vibrating, scintillatingly wine in your glass with a millésime solaire. Outstanding.