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Winemaker: Francis Blanchet
Honest, pure and unquestionably terroir-driven, the wines of Francis Blanchet effortlessly capture the firecracker-soul of Pouilly-Fumé and are a pleasure to drink.
This petite family domaine--so small, in fact, that the first time we visited the domaine almost a decade ago, we almost turned around thinking we were lost in a residental neighborhood--is a labor of love. Winemaker Francis Blanchet converted his basement into a working cellar and from this humble location turns out eloquent, vibrant Sauvignon Blanc year in and year out.
The appellation of Pouilly-Fumé sits across the river from Sancerre, in the eastern part of the Loire Valley, and its wines typically have a more flinty, smoky, minerally cut. than those of its neighbor. (Fumé, in French, means smoked.) Our special selection from the estate, "Silice," hails from a plot of very old vines that grow on exclusively flint stone soils.
Blanchet once gave us a great lesson in the power of terroir while we were standing in his "Silice" vineyard. He grabbed two stones from the ground and smacked them together; and then, unexpectedly, held the rocks up for us to smell. The whiff of gunpowder smoke was unmistakable. His wines exhale the same firecracker perfume, and share the same nervous energy throughout.
"Cuvée Silice" is vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel and is bottled unfined and unfiltered.