2019 Domaine Michel Vattan Sancerre Cuvee O-P 750 ml

There’s no better time to be in the castle-dotted landscape of France’s chilly Loire Valley than the first weekend of May. That’s when the region’s iconic Sancerre makers unofficially compete for white wine dominance in the streets, over heaps of freshly-shucked Guillardeau and Bouin oysters and never-ending pours of Sauvignon Blanc.

The best part of the annual Foire aux Huitres is that we can slip through the crowds in jeans and wrinkled sportcoats, moving from one chart-topping producer to the next unnoticed, truly experiencing their cuvées without the white-tablecloth treatment that can make mediocre wines seem exceptional. 

The lack of fanfare also makes exceptional wines stand out like spotlights under a new moon, and Michel Vattan’s luminous, crisp Sancerre jolted us on our last visit with its laser-like precision, mineral complexity, and mouthwatering finish—even from a plastic glass.

In an instant, we were reminded why Vattan’s crystalline expressions of Sancerre’s limestone soils have been a mainstay on our tables (and the tables of thousands of Wine Access members) for the past half-decade. Today, we’re thrilled to be the only US retailer with access to Vattan’s 2019 release, for just $25—a steal for the benchmark producer’s marquee cuvée. 

Whether you pop this Sancerre by the pool the moment it arrives, or stash away a few bottles for refreshment this six months or two years from now, the Cuvée O-P is always in style, and pairs with everything from salade Niçoise to grilled peaches with goat cheese, or a classic rotisserie chicken. 

Every sip and swirl of Vattan’s crystal clear, classic Sancerre evokes images of the pristine landscape and chilly Loire breezes with its citrus and mineral aromatics that harmonize with crisp Granny Smith apple before a cleansing, bone-dry finish that demands another sip. 

Since 1930, the Vattan family has been fine-tuning their approach to the Sauvignon Blanc grapes that make this Sancerre positively sing. Now with Pascal and Nathalie Joulin at the helm, the family tends mature, 35-year-old vines within a bucolic setting where livestock graze amid the vines. Within this pastoral Eden, the Domaine’s vines have flourished atop the region’s hallmark Oxfordian limestone and Portlandian soils—the same soils that lend their initials for the Cuvee O-P—which give this wine its classic Sancerre traits of mouthwatering acidity and a bone-dry finish. 

In a vintage that many wrote off as challenging, the team at Domaine Michel Vattan rose to the occasion and made the 2019 Cuvée O-P in the image of vintages past—zippy, textural and pure. 

A steadfast beacon of quality, the 2019 Cuvée O-P is the definition of craveable, so trust us when we say one bottle will not be enough.