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Domaine Didier Dagueneau

Avant-Garde ‘Pouilly-Fumé’ from a Titan of the Loire Valley

Didier Dagueneau will forever be remembered as “The Wild Man of Saint-Andelain”. A true enfant terrible, he singlehandedly revolutionised viticulture and wine making in Pouilly-Fumé. Initially vilified by his peers, he was eventually revered for his success. Dagueneau tragically passed away in a light plane crash in September 2008.  His son is now in charge of the Domaine and continues to uphold his father’s remarkable legacy.

If there were any doubts surrounding the succession of this remarkable Estate, they have been emphatically quashed by the recent releases under the stewardship of Louis-Benjamin. On a recent visit Benjamin spoke of the ‘well oiled’ Estate he had inherited. “We have been experimenting here for 25 years in every area—vineyard management, winemaking, types of oak, time on lees—every single detail has been closely looked at, to establish precisely how we could produce the greatest possible wines from our soils. Today we know what we are doing. We are still progressing, and every year is different, but now any changes are at the margins.” 

“His wines smelled not of Sauvignon Blanc ... but of......Spring. Sipping the Buisson Renard was like standing beneath a waterfall: the flavours were clean, limpid eerily palpable, a soft shock. The silex was not the parody flintlock of popular myth; it was pure, sappy, soaring, rich, finishing with just a hint of stone after rain. I had not been expecting this calm and majestic retreat from the varietal. I learnt something new.” Andrew Jefford, The New France

Benjamin grew up in the vineyards and tasting great wines with his legendary father. He completed a degree in oenology and came back to work at the Domaine in 2004 after a year with François Chidaine in Montlouis and another year with Olivier Jullien at Mas Jullien in the Languedoc. He was about to launch his own Domaine when his father tragically passed away. He was ready.

We are often asked how the wines of Louis Benjamin differ from those of his father. The wines today have the same tension and vineyard expression that they did under Didier yet there is an added generosity and texture which certainly adds something to the equation. Our impression is that Louis Benjamin is little more relaxed at harvest time than his father was and perhaps picks a tad later, searching for his idea of perfectly ripened fruit. Regardless, no matter which wine you choose, each bottle from this avant-garde grower lives in a dimension beyond being merely outstanding Sauvignon Blanc and ranks amongst the great white wines of the world.

Postscripts In 2018 Benjamin Dagueneau pulled his family Domaine out of the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. Clearly, there is no love lost (if there was ever any to lose) between Dagueneau and the authorities. Last year Louis-Benjamin burnt the last vestige of the bridge by removing every reference to Pouilly-Fumé that remained on his labels—including Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, which is now labelled as Blanc Etc... It goes without saying that at no time in history has Domaine Didier Dagueneau relied on the appellation’s name to sell its wines. If anything, this latest change only serves to underline the non-conformity of one of France’s great Domaines.

Currently Available

Les Jardins de Babylone Jurançon Moelleux 2020

Les Jardins de Babylone Jurançon Moelleux 2020

Made in tiny quantities from ridiculously low yields of Petit Manseng, this offers all the purity and precision of Dagueneau’s greatest wines. Dider Dagueneau loved the wines of J. J. Prüm, and you can think of this as a Prüm-styled Jurançon (such is the purity and electric intensity!). The pricing reflects the costs of making the wine (via berry-by-berry selection, even though no botrytis is involved). To arrive at this price per bottle, the claim is that the project's costs are simply totalled and then divided by the number of bottles made. Sounds logical enough!The low yields and warmth of the site mean Les Jardins de Babylone can be picked in late October, a whole month before the grapes for conventional Jurançon Moelleux are typically picked. Even so, the wine usually ends up with approximately 130 g/L residual sugar, perfectly balanced by tangy, mouthwatering acidity to give a wine with fabulous verve and drive. As alluded to above, this wine is Germanic in style, so it isn’t only a dessert wine, but can also be drunk throughout the meal (the way you might consume a German Auslese) or with cheese. Of course, it can work brilliantly with carefully matched desserts (ideally citrus- or apple-based).

95 points, La Revue de Vin de France (Green Guide)
“The nobly-concentrated Dagueneau Jurancons … are magnificent, with superb detail, magical levity, as well as irresistibility rather than over-the-top sweetness. ‘The idea is to have a balance with high acidity, not a confiture,’ remarks Benjamin Dagueneau. ‘Chateau d’Yquem is very good, but heavy. These wines aim at something a little more Germanic in style.’ I was already grinning before he said this!”
David Schildknecht, The Wine Advocate
“Madame Hégoburu [Domaine de Souch] told me that she thought her wine could hold its own against all comers in Jurançon, but that she had to make an exception in favour of Didier’s.”
Paul Strang, South-West France: The Wines and Winemakers
Les Jardins de Babylone Jurançon Moelleux 2020

Domaine Didier Dagueneau Vin de France Silex 2022 (1500ml)

If anyone wonders why this domaine is so famous, this wine holds all the answers. Silex is the ultimate Dagueneau wine in many ways: super-mineral, pure, crystalline and typically long-lived. Silex means flint, and this wine is produced only from the flint-rich soils on the north-facing slopes of the hill of Saint-Andelain. The vines mostly range between 35 and 65 years old, and yields are kept lower than in most other vineyards. Silex ferments and ages in Dagueneau’s famed cigar-shaped barrels and other casks, and a portion now matures in 220-litre Wineglobe—neutral glass vessels that avoid reduction and allow for lower SO2 levels. Because of the soil type and the concentration of the mature vines, this wine is always intense and often austere when young, typically requiring several years (between five and 10) to truly express itself.

“The 2022 Silex is not a lot of fun upon release; dry and tense, it really needs time to mellow. There's flesh from the clay element of its clay-flint soils, which is felt on entry but tightens up as it moves through the mouth. This remains a wine of drive, firmness and upright structure; it speaks of the place it comes from rather than its variety. Aromatics are almost a forgotten element; this is a wine about structure and texture. There is a lemony, wild goat cheese-like note and a distinct flinty whiff. Silex, after all, means flint in French.”
94 points, Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous
96 points, La Revue du Vin de France (Green Guide)
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AT-A-GLANCE

• Revolutionary vigneron Didier Daugueneau founded this, one of France’s most iconic estates, in 1982 in Saint-Andelain, Pouilly Fumé.

• Second-generation Louis-Benjamin took the reins in 2008 after his father’s untimely death.

• The domaine was among the first in the region to explore single-plot wines and barrels for vinification and more recently abandoned the Pouilly-Fumé appellation on its labels.

• The estate spans 12 hectares of vines across Pouilly-Fumé, including parcels in the famed Les Monts Damnès and La Folie vineyards.

• Organic and biodynamic practices are used, soils are tilled, and yields are kept incredibly low.

• Vinification includes a range of vessels: barrels of varying sizes, stoneware, ceramic eggs and Wineglobes—and maturations are long.

• The Dagueneaus also farm three hectares of vines in Jurançon and make a dry and moelleux wine.

• The wines are extremely rare and sold strictly on allocation.



IN THE PRESS

“When his father died in September of 2008, Louis Benjamin was only 26 years old. While some things have changed since then, much remains the same. The dogs are gone, and the house has a different flair, but the meticulous attention to detail in the vineyards and the precision in the cellar have, if anything, become even more perfectionist under his direction.” Joel B Payne, Vinous

Country

France

Primary Region

Central Vineyards, Loire Valley

People

Winemaker: Louis-Benjamin Dagueneau

Availability

National

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