2017 Domaine Raimbault-Pineau Sancerre 750 ml

This is super-crisp, citrusy, and mineral-rich Sauvignon Blanc from a family of vignerons that has been growing grapes in the eastern Loire for ten generations. The vines in the pristine Raimbault-Pineau vineyards are rooted in the chalky clay and limestone soils of Sancerre, which imbues the juicy and floral wine with the stony minerality and sleek austerity that we expect from top-quality Sancerre—the world’s benchmark for Sauvignon Blanc.

In 1946, right after the end of WWII, Lucien Raimbault was able to do something that his ancestors never had the means to do: He purchased vineyards in Sancerre.

Before Lucien staked the family’s permanent claim, ten generations of Raimbaults had been farming the chalky hillsides of the eastern Loire—a history that reached back three centuries. Today, the family continues to work the original Sancerre plot purchased by Lucien in 1946, as well as 40 separate plots of AOC Sancerre vines, all located around the village of Sury-en-Vaux.

The 2017 growing season started inauspiciously with an early frost—but things got much better, fast. “The growing season and weather conditions following the April frosts were almost perfect right up until harvest,” according to critic Jancis Robinson’s website.

Although 2017 saw an increase in yields from the frost-trimmed 2016 vintage, a run of successive small harvests starting in 2012 had caused cellar inventories to run extremely low, which has put a lot of upward pressure on 2017 Sancerre prices. The fact that so many wineries and consumers are feeling that pinch makes the Raimbault-Pineau even more of an outlier.