WINERY: Domaine Vacheron
GRAPE: Sauvignon Blanc
REGION: Sancerre
 
The Vacherons without question are Sancerre’s leading winemaking clan. From the family’s pioneering work in identifying and exploring the region’s top terroirs to their leading position in biodynamic viticulture, there are few if any artisans today in Sancerre as exacting or as respected.
 
The estate’s peerless older vines, planted and cultivated by generations of family members, are cared for fastidiously. Yet it is the their single vineyard wines, like ‘Les Romains’—terroir-based selections recalling the painstaking work of Burgundian monks in the Côte d’Or—that have shown the world the heights and complexity that Sancerre can reach.
 
VINEYARDS:
The Vacheron cousins own 1 hectare of vines in the lieu-dit of Le Paradis. Their plot is on a steep south-facing slope with shallow limestone soils. The soil is so thin and poor that the vine roots grow deeply into fissures in the bedrock below.
 
WINEMAKING: 
Hand-harvested. Fermented on indigenous yeasts and aged 12 months in older French barrique. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
 
TASTING NOTES
Le Paradis is an explosively aromatic wine, dense on the palate with a broad mineral character kept in check by a sinuous acidity that keeps things lively.