Sancerre: Surpassing Sauvignon
As with a select few fine wine regions around the world, Sancerre surpasses its grape variety. The best winemakers, with the best terroir, can elicit wines of great character and emotion, true heralds of a place and of a moment in time.
Each soil type – be that flinty soils called silex, Kimmeridgian clay-limestone (locally called terres blanches), or pebbly limestone (caillottes) – brings its own flavours, textures and sensations to the wines. But it’s also the winemakers’ small decisions, such as the use of indigenous yeasts or lees ageing, that help bring full expression to Sancerre’s Sauvignon Blanc. ‘We don’t just make Sauvignon, we bring something else to it, and for me élevage plays that role,’ says Cyprien Perchaud, the third generation at Domaine des Sardelles, who joined the estate in 2021.
As a new generation emerges, well-travelled and brimming with ideas and techniques picked up from other wine regions, a modern picture of Sancerre, and Centre-Loire as a whole, is starting to take shape.
• Did you know: Sancerre has no official cru system, but a number of vineyards, such as Les Monts Damnés, are renowned for producing exceptional, highly individual wines.
• Food pairing: The classic Sancerre pairing is a local goat’s cheese called Crottin de Chavignol: small, dense, creamy rounds with a salty citrus tang. Try the Crottin at its freshest and creamiest alongside a young Sancerre from a blend of terroirs. Or if you want to level up your pairing try a more mature, firmer, stronger Crottin with a single-vineyard Sancerre from the region’s famous terres blanches soils with a few years of bottle age, such as the Jean Max Roger La Côte de Bué 2020, listed overleaf.
Award-winning Pouilly-Fumé
A Best in Show for Domaine Landrat-Guyollot and a Gold medal for Château de Tracy at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) shows just how exceptional Pouilly-Fumé wines can be. Remarkably, almost 90% of Pouilly-Fumé wines entered into DWWA 2025 were awarded a medal – a particular achievement in the face of a difficult 2024 vintage, and a demonstration of the continued drive towards excellence across the appellation. An ambitious project is underway to map the appellation’s soils in fine detail, to better understand how winemakers can adapt to climate change according to the specificities of site and soil type.
Sancerre’s neighbour across the river Loire, Pouilly-Fumé offers wines with a broader structure and a smoky, flinty character. Yet even within the appellation, a diversity of styles can be found, especially from single-terroir expressions. When Anne-Sophie Figeat joined her family’s Domaine Figeat in 2019, she introduced a delicate new cuvée, Les Craies, based on limestone soils, to contrast the domaine’s powerful, intense Les Origines, from silex soils.
• Did you know: Unlike in Sancerre, only white wines can be made in Pouilly-Fumé.
• Food pairing: The flinty minerality of Pouilly-Fumé makes it a standout partner for delicate seafood – think sashimi or seared scallops.
Each soil type brings its own flavours, textures and sensations to the wines. Credit: Nicole Gevrey
Menetou-Salon: Growing in renown
Just west of Sancerre, this appellation is producing increasingly exciting and compelling wines with great balance between minerality and fruitiness. The soils here are dominated by Kimmeridgian clay-limestone, or terres blanches, similar to those found 140km to the northeast in Chablis. Although Menetou-Salon is located more than 400km from the Atlantic, the presence of the sea is felt through its soils, which are rich in marine fossils deposited when this area was underwater more than 150 million years ago. The intense minerality of this appellation’s white wines is woven with the freshness of citrus and mint and the softness of ripe stone fruit.
• Did you know: Both of the award-winning Menetou-Salon wines featured here come from the rolling hills around the village of Morogues, a particularly high-quality pocket of south- and southeast-facing vineyards in the northeast corner of the appellation.
• Food pairing: Try with grilled prawns, fresh crab or goat’s cheese tarts, as the wine’s acidity balances creamy textures beautifully.
Quincy: The fruits of cooperation
In this small appellation of just 50 producers, there is a real ‘culture of sharing resources,’ says Géraldine Lestourgie of Domaine de Chevilly, which is part of a collective of 15 estates that share winery space and equipment.
The appellation’s collective spirit extends to group funding of projects such as wind turbines and anti-hail machines to combat climatic risks. ‘We all know each other,’ says Lestourgie, ‘so it’s easy to exchange and to put things in place.’
Grape-growing also shares space with various forms of agriculture. Domaine du Coudray grew lentils, chickpeas and cereals before adding AOC Quincy and Reuilly wines to its production – a testament to how the Centre-Loire’s inhabitants have long held strong connections with their land.
• Did you know: A recent generational shift means that many producers have started organic conversion within the last five years.
• Food pairing: These wines pair perfectly with vegetable-based dishes – think grilled asparagus, spring pea risotto or goat’s cheese salad. Their freshness and light body make them ideal aperitif whites, too.
Caillottes, a pebbly limestone soil distinct from terres blanches. Credit: Nicole Gevrey
Award-winning Centre-Loire wines
Domaine Landrat-Guyollot, Gemme Océane, Pouilly-Fumé 2022
97pts
If you’re looking for a ‘screaming Sauvignon’, look elsewhere: this wine is subtle, understated and compelling, almost as if you could smell the coolness of the site and the proximity of shady trees. In the mouth, it’s soft and secondary: gently and calmly fruity to begin with, all dessert-apple and quince, then with its distinctive sap and green wealth growing in the mouth, filling out those fruits and lending them dignity and completeness. Before you know it, the glass will be empty.
Alc 14%
Château de Tracy, Pouilly-Fumé 2023
96pts
VINATIS £25.52, Davy’s Wine Merchants £26.95, Tanners Wines £29.95, Les & Sandeman £30.95
Delicate florals, smoky minerals and a squeeze of lime, then a rush of citrus floods the palate. Supple, with a warm, sunny finish.
Alc 13%
Jean Max Roger, La Côte de Bué, Sancerre 2020
95pts
Beautifully delineated ripe melon, gooseberry and peach notes nurture the weighty structure and creamy viscosity with a fluid acidity and moreish, candied orange finish.
Alc 15%
Domaine des Brosses, Quincy 2024
91pts
Morrish and Banham £22.99 (2023 out of stock – 2024 coming soon),
London End Wines £23
Very perfumed, with rose petal on the nose, while the palate is laced with pear drop and vibrant lemon acidity.
Alc 12.5%
Domaine Reverdy-Ducroux, Definition by Majestic, Sancerre 2024
90pts
Majestic £23 for the 2023 – 2024 coming soon
Pretty nose of white floral notes, green pea and Granny Smith apple; vibrant palate of lemon with bright acidity.
Alc 12.5%
Domaine Jean-Paul Picard, Le Pré-Long, Menetou-Salon 2024
89pts
The Sipster £22
Attractive aromatics of pear drop and citrus lead on to a palate of blackcurrant leaf and taut acidity.
Alc 12.5%
New horizons: Delicious discoveries from beyond the beaten track
At the midpoint of the Loire’s long journey from its source in the Massif Central to its mouth on the Atlantic coast is the Sauvignon Blanc stronghold of Centre-Loire. This exciting corner of France is brimming with vinous treasures, and a closer look reveals a vibrant tapestry of colours and styles that push the boundaries far beyond the crisp, refreshing whites we know and love.
Red Sancerre is an exercise in restraint: elegant Pinot Noir that shows pin-point varietal character, often without the veil of oak and over-extraction. These charming reds, which are benefitting from warmer summers and better ripeness in recent vintages, have evolved from bistro bargains to complex wines found on top restaurant lists around the world. Rosé shines here too, often with floral characters alongside crisp citrus and tantalising textures.
Kimmeridgian clay-limestone soils, known as terres blanches. Credit: Nicole Gevrey
Tasting Centre-Loire’s different soils
On the banks of the Cher, a tributary of the Loire, Quincy is the oldest appellation in the region, formed in 1936. Its alluvial soils, with sands and gravels transported from the Massif Central, give rise to Sauvignon Blanc with structure and persistence, perfect to pair with aromatic curry dishes.
Reuilly contrasts Quincy’s clays, sand and gravel with limestone. Its whites are floral and fresh, and reds are fruity and pretty, with juicy acidity. Don’t miss the rosés too, made from Pinot Gris: delicately peach-hued with a white fruit profile, they can be subtle and delicate, with good weight and texture.
An eclectic cast of winemakers
In Coteaux Giennois, Domaine Berthier is taking a parcellaire approach to showcase that this appellation has the potential to truly express terroir. As in Sancerre, silex, terres blanches and caillottes are the words to look out for on labels, offering subtle differences in flavour, power and structure.
This diversity in appellations and wine styles is reflected in the people that make these regions tick. Their varied backgrounds, experiences and stories bring these wines to life, in highly individual expressions of place.
Originally from Champagne, Pascal Dethune of Domaine Cordaillat was a financial advisor in Paris before buying this domaine in Reuilly. Anne-Sophie Figeat was a pharmacist before deciding to take up the mantle at her family estate, Domaine Figeat, in Pouilly. And Clément Berthier worked at a biodynamic winery in Oregon before returning to his family’s Domaine Berthier.
These wide-ranging experiences, skillsets and outlooks bring a whole new dynamic to the region – and safe hands for the future.
Pouilly-Fumé vineyards facing Sancerre. Credit: Nicole Gevrey
Centre-Loire DWWA 2025 medal-winners to surprise and delight
Château la Rabotine, Sancerre 2023
93pts
Lovely nose of red berry, cherry and subtle herbal notes; mint, dark chocolate and a bright cherry acidity on the palate.
Alc 13%
Fournier Père & Fils, Menetou-Salon, Côtes de Morogues 2024
89pts
Inviting aromas of citrus and rhubarb on the nose; herby palate of greengage, gooseberry and apple.
Alc 13%
Domaine Adèle Rouzé, Quincy 2024
90pts
Roberson Wine £23.50
Inviting and aromatic, with a nose of fresh citrus and white nectarine; palate of mouth-watering acidity and a lifted minerality.
Alc 13%
Domaine Poupat & Fils, Rivotte, Coteaux du Giennois 2024
88pts
Pretty nose of pear drop, white flower and citrus; palate of juicy lemon and a lean acidity.
Alc 13%
Domaine Cordaillat, Les Sables, Reuilly 2023
90pts
The Black Dog Wine Company £18.95
Inviting nose of perfumed greengage and green apple; yellow fruit and fresh citrus on the palate.
Alc 13%
Domaine Sautereau, Sancerre Rosé, Sancerre 2024
89pts
Hay Wines £28.69, Wadebridge Wines £26.95, Dunell’s £23.95
100% Pinot Noir. Inviting aromatics of sweet spice and plush cherry; palate of light, fresh herbs, summer berries and white-stone minerality.
Alc 12.5%
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