2022 Vincent Gaudry - Sancerre Mont Damné (750ml)

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Vincent Gaudry is a rising star amongst French wine cognoscenti; he’s commonly touted as one of the finest winemakers in the Loire. He’s been crafting benchmark wines for over 20 years from organic, biodynamic, and regenerative farming, but his wines have only recently landed stateside.

This Monts Damnés comes from vines planted in the 1960s, and was gifted to Vincent Gaudry by none other than Vatan (arguably the most coveted producer of Sauvignon Blanc).

Mont Damné (Vincent’s preferred spelling) is an entirely new single vineyard for Vincent, marking his arrival in the famed village of Chavignol. In 2022, he vinified his first vintage from a steep single parcel in the sheltered heart of the Mont Damné slope, leased to him by Vatan's daughter Anne. The south-facing parcel consists of massale selection Sauvignon Blanc vines planted on the hillside by Edmond Vatan in the 1960’s. Soils here famously consist of caillottes (Oxfordian limestone) with calcareous clay subsoil, giving Chavignol its signature finesse, strength, and power, as well as its notable ability to improve with age in bottle.

Mont Damné’s already naturally low yields are reduced by Vincent’s ruthless pruning to less than half the appellation norm. Along with his disciplined organic and biodynamic viticulture and late harvesting, he crafts a concentrated, complex expression of this site. Just two 600L barrels of Vincent Gaudry Mont Damné are produced, and only when the vintage speaks to Vincent’s sensibilities.