2020 Patrick Noel Sancerre Blanc AC

Structured yet supple.  Fleshy but tart passionfruit, green peach, kiwi, and green apple round out the supple palate, almost producing an electric “green” scent to this vivid Sauvignon Blanc. Even the minerality is multi-dimensional here, with a saline gleam of crushed oyster shell layered atop a steely flash of gunflint.  This honestly over delivers in every way for the price from arguably the world’s premier site for Sauvignon Blanc!
Their Sancerre is made from estate vineyards located primarily in the villages of Chavignol and Sancerre, with a small amount of fruit from Saint-Satur. The blend includes grapes from vines planted in all three soil types of the region: Silex (flinty clay) in Sancerre, Terre Blanche (Kimmeridgian clay-limestone) in Chavignol and Saint-Satur, and Caillottes (stony calcareous limestone) in Chavignol.
Vigneronne Julie Noël is making some of the most structured, soulful wines in Sancerre. In contrast to many estates in an appellation not presently known for complexity, the Noël family maintains an incredibly passionate following in France from their reputation for making wines of intensity and grace. They are also known for their faith in indigenous yeasts for fermentation and clear communication of terroir. 

Their Sancerre is made from estate vineyards located primarily in the villages of Chavignol and Sancerre, with a small amount of fruit from Saint-Satur. The blend includes grapes from vines planted in all three soil types of the region: Silex (flinty clay) in Sancerre, Terre Blanche (Kimmeridgian clay-limestone) in Chavignol and Saint-Satur, and Caillottes (stony calcareous limestone) in Chavignol.

The cellar was built within the 14th-century monastery vineyards of the Abbey of Saint-Satur, buried in the hillside where they work exclusively by gravity, overlooking the entire Loire Valley with breathtaking views of Sancerre.  These bottlings are from 100% Estate grown vineyards and 80% are from the famed Chavignol.

The domaine was created in 1988 by Patrick Noël in his native village of Saint-Satur, at the base of the Sancerre hill. Patrick is descended from more than three centuries of vignerons, all from the village of Chavignol. Historically, in the Noël family, the vines have always been transmitted from mothers to daughters. Patrick is an exception to this rule, but his daughter Julie, by choosing to take over the wine heritage in her turn, is part of a long matriarchal line.

After a decade spent outside the Sancerrois as a research engineer at the National Institute of Agronomic Research, Patrick returned to his ancestral home and started his namesake project in Sancerre. Today the domain farms over fifty plots totaling 18 ha in the appellations of Sancerre, Menetou-Salon, and Pouilly-Fumé. 
In Sancerre, their parcels are on three terroirs, Les Bouffants, la Côte Des Monts Damnés, and l’Orme au Loup. In Pouilly-Fumé, their vines are planted on silex soil in the village of Tracy-sur-Loire.

Domaine Patrick Noël bottles only estate fruit, fermented exclusively with native, indigenous yeasts and they have also implemented the certification of their plots through a new ecological farming certification program in France known as Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE). HVE is an approach that focuses on the ecology and balance of the vineyards with the surrounding ecosystems.