Daniel Chotard Sancerre 2022

Daniel Chotard and his wife, Brigitte, live just outside Sancerre in the village of Reigny. The Chotard family has been making wine for well over two hundred years. In recent years, Daniel has passed the reins of the Domaine on to his son Simon. The terroir of Sancerre is widely regarded as producing one of the greatest expressions of the Sauvignon Blanc grape. Simon farms the slopes of the village Crézancy-en-Sancerre, where flint meets clay and the famous Kimmeridgian limestone. He practices sustainable farming, and uses organic composts to treat the vines. Typically, he harvests his grapes later than his neighbours, resulting in full-bodied wines with a rich complexity. He has also transitioned away from using cultured yeasts, fermenting every wine naturally-a rare feat in an appellation where technical winemaking is still the norm. Simon’s quest for a more authentic expression of terroir has led him to isolate certain parcels on the basis of soil, experimenting with different aging vessels in the cellar (demi-muids, acacia, foudres...) to find the best match.