Thomas-Labaille, Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre "Les Monts Damnés" Chavignol, Loire Valley, France 2023

100% Sauvignon Blanc.

The Monts Damnés from Thomas-Labaille is sensational: rich, fat, round, with layered aromas, a subtle nose and a long finish. Not a typical bistro Sancerre, but a graceful wine meant for aging and pleasure.

Thomas-Labaille has vines averaging thirty years old with some much older on the famously steep slope of Monts Damnés in Chavignol. They are sustainably farmed and harvested by hand. The wine is fermented with native yeasts in fiberglass and cement tanks, aged on its lees in stainless steel tanks (with a small proportion of used barrel in some vintages) for four to six months and bottled without filtration.

The Monts Damnés, Sancerre's best vineyard site, is too steep a slope to ever consider machine harvesting, which is now the norm in the appellation, and it requires intensive, non-mechanized vineyard work, but this site is worth the trouble: drainage and exposure are excellen,t and ensure the best ripeness for the vintage.