Description
Certified Organic, Practicing Biodynamic. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. A single-vineyard wine and one of the most moving at the domaine: ‘Les Amoureuses’ takes its name from the vineyard’s soil type; it has distinctly heavier clay content than Crochet’s other parcels. ‘The lovers’ is a reference to how much clay in the vineyard sticks to one’s boots when working there. Vines are 55+ years old; fruit is hand-harvested. Pressed and fermented with natural yeasts. Aged on fine lees in neutral foudre for at least a year and a half. It’s the most robust of Crochet’s wine, with robust candied citrus notes, texture and power. Rich on the palate, but balanced with great acidity.
Crochet’s methods are gentle: fruit is hand-harvested and whole-cluster pressed, making for pure, delicate expression—less ripeness and dullness, which has its origin in rough handling of fruit, poor farming, and over-cropped yields. Since 2019, only wild yeasts have been used in the winery, deepening the wines’ profiles; since 2017, the vineyards are worked both organically (certified) and biodynamically (practicing since 2018 and conversion completed in 2020).
François Crochet’s wines are some to watch: since there’s never enough Vatan, Cotat, and Boulay to go around; it’s exciting to see a producer come back to his family domaine, improve farming and vinification, and start to deliver some soft-but-structured, aromatically compelling Sancerres from an appellation where quality can be hard to come by.
