2020 La Legende de Saint-Martin Cuvee Prestige Sancerre 750 ml

When we tasted La Légende de St.-Martin’s Cuvée Prestige three years ago—with its crisp minerality, energetic fruit, and pure refreshment—we knew we’d move heaven and earth to secure this exceptional value for our members.

This wine is nearly impossible to get in the US, simply because it normally sells out in France. But that didn’t keep us from trying. 

After that first taste, we went straight to the estate, where visiting the father-and-son team of Emmanuel and Jean-Paul Fleuriet feels like a trip into the past. Dripping, rough-hewn faucets jut out from cobbled stone walls, and dim lamps barely penetrate the ancient gloom of the cellars, parts of which date back to 1735. 

The Fleuriets’ 30 acres in the heart of Verdigny have everything required for elite Sancerre production: vineyards with precipitous slopes, the region’s classic mix of limestone and clay, and generations-old cellars that keep an even temperature throughout the year. The only snag was that they seemed uninterested in selling. 

The Fleuriets simply didn’t care about a business plan to expand to the US. They didn’t care about marketing. They didn’t even have a tech sheet for their wines. They just wanted to make extraordinarily good Loire Sauvignon Blanc, as the family had for generations.

For two years, “non, merci'' was all we got. Finally we named a price for the 2020, a home-run vintage that, compared to recent frost-plagued harvests, showed decent yields. We told the Fleuriets we’d handle all the marketing, paperwork, and logistics—and we’d pay up front. 

That’s what it takes to liberate a top Sancerre from the French—and it’s why wines like this almost never come around.