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Intense but nuanced, Valentin Desloges Sauvignon Blanc’s are post-varietal wines of great intensity and finesse. This crystalline, pure expression is Valentin Desloges’ first Sauvignon Blanc and the only blended white in his portfolio. It comes from two parcels of vines the clay and flint soils rising above the Loire River at Noyers-sur-Cher.
Picked ripe, with barely any vestige of ‘Sauvignon-ness’, the grapes are pressed as whole bunches and ferment with indigenous yeasts in both tank and a selection of used barrels ranging from 228 to 500 litres. These vessels include those made using oak staves from the nearby Loches forest, selected and aged by Valentin Desloges himself The wine ages for six months with a single racking and plenty of lees contact.
Despite the negligible use of sulphur (1 g/L at the press and 2 g/L at bottling), it’s an incredibly focused, limpid, penetrating Sauvignon. Aromas of crushed rock, camomile leaves, sea salt and chervil lead to a zesty and mouth-filling wine finishing on song with excellent grip and mouth-watering stony acidity. As always here, Sauvignon Blanc, just like Chardonnay in Burgundy, is the messenger rather than the message.