2020 Florian Mollet L'Antique Roc de l'Abbaye Sancerre Rouge 750 ml

If you want to know how seriously great collectors treat Florian Mollet’s Domaine Roc de l'Abbaye, just look at who imports the wines to the US: Demeine Estates.

Co-founded by Master Sommelier Carlton McCoy, Demeine doesn’t do second-class: They make $300+ bottles at Heitz and Haynes Vineyard, which they own, and they import luminaries like Burgundy’s Domaine de Montille and Margaux Second Growth Château Lascombes. The ONLY Loire estate in the portfolio? Sancerre-based Roc de l'Abbaye, made by Florian Mollet.

L’Antique is their signature red wine, made from his most prized Pinot Noir. The vines sit around the village of Saint-Satur, one of Sancerre’s historic heartlands, perched above the Loire River and defined by silex (flint) soils found in only about 15% of the appellation. The same prized terroir gives his top Sancerre Blanc its famed smoky minerality, and in Pinot Noir it translates to tension, precision, and an unmistakable mineral backbone. Add in vine age in the neighborhood of 70 years, and you get fruit with natural concentration and depth that no cellar trick can replicate.

For Florian Mollet, 2020 was a year that rewarded vigilance and restraint. An early, warm spring pushed the vines into motion quickly, and from there the season demanded constant attention in the vineyards rather than intervention in the cellar. Dry, sunny conditions meant low disease pressure, but ripening moved fast, especially on older vines rooted deep in silex soils. Mollet monitored parcels closely, adjusting work in the vines and timing harvest with precision, waiting for phenolic maturity without letting sugars run away. It was a dream year for Pinot Noir in the Loire.

In the cellar, Florian Mollet keeps things just as focused. Parcels are vinified separately to preserve site character, with a portion of whole-cluster fermentation to build aromatic lift and structure rather than weight. Aging is thoughtful and restrained, with most of the wine spending time in neutral 228-liter oak barrels for up to a year, enough to polish the texture without obscuring the vineyard’s voice. It’s a classic, terroir-first approach that explains why L’Antique drinks like serious Burgundy.