2020 Roger et Didier Raimbault Les Belles Cotes Sancerre 750 ml

A string of stingy vintages is causing a run on wines from 2020, which makes our allocation of Roger and Didier Raimbault’s Belles Côtes a massive coup. Bursting with tropical fruit, citrus, and herbs, it’s laser-focused and built on an electric acidity, finishing with elegant chalkiness. It’s a beautiful wine that effortlessly expresses both ripe, juicy fruit and the terroir of Sancerre—in short, the kind of wine Sauvignon Blanc fans go absolutely nuts over. 

The father-and-son team of Roger and Didier Raimbault are the present-day heirs to a 400-year family history of winegrowing in the village of Verdigny, in the heart of the Sancerre region. Together, they work their 43 acres of vineyards, producing Sancerre that will absolutely blow you away with its bold, expressive flavors.

All but 20% of the Raimbaults’ vines are on slopes pitched at an angle between 10% and 40%. These perfectly draining hillside vineyards, with a wide variety of expositions to the sun, give the Raimbaults an extensive palette of grapes to vinify and blend. Their Belles Côtes (“The Beautiful Slopes”) bottling is an equal blend of two hillside terroirs: one covered in caillottes (little pebbles) and another rich in terres blanches (white earth)—the same kind of Kimmeridgian limestone-clay that lends top Chablis, Champagne, and Sancerre its unmistakable character. 

The 2020 vintage in Sancerre was a fantastic one, even if it was tiny. The Raimbaults picked at perfect maturity, giving a full bodied, fruit-driven white with the acidity and complexity to keep you coming back for sip after sip.