Roger Neveu Sancerre Cote des Embouffants 2020

A winemaking tradition as long as France’s is bound to produce a few historic vineyard sites here and there. But when some rosy-cheeked monk or abbot, the wine bloggers of their age, singles out a specific plot, you know you have something truly special. In his 1777 history of Sancerre, the abbot Poupart wrote that “the Bouffants hillside is one of the best I know in our Sancerre area.”

It is perfectly appropriate, then, that the “Côte des Embouffants” is now under the care of the Neveu family, who has roots in the village of Verdigny, just half a mile from the vineyard, since the 12th century. Today, brothers Éric and Jean-Philippe Neveu produce a fresh-cut-grass-and-citrus-inflected Sauvignon Blanc of incredible precision from this site. They ferment and age it only in tank and rack by gravity to preserve all the juicy, sun-ripened fruit and lively mineral snap conferred by this steep, limestone-covered hillside. The generously perfumed and incredibly refreshing 2020 vintage suggests that, nearly 250 years later, Poupart may have been onto something.