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Andre Dezat (375ml), 2019, Sancerre Blanc

White, Old World, Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire, France

A lovely acidity with citrus, white flowers and exotic fruit aromas and flavours; in addition to being a great aperitif it pairs perfectly with food - try it with crustaceans, fish or goat cheese

Why we recommend this wine
The Dezat domaine makes really good sauvignon blancs from the Sancerre region and this is an excellent entry-level example.

The wine
Made from 30 year old vines grown on three different soil types – primarily the pebbly limestone known here as caillottes. They use long fermentation (around 30 to 60 days) at controlled temperature (16-19 °C), followed by ageing on the fine lees for two months. First bottling carried out from spring. You can sense the older vines that lie behind this wine, treating us to an extra roll of limy, almost lush ripe fruit that accompanies the wine's deep-seated stone minerality.

The wine estate
André Dezat et Fils produce elegant, very fine white wines using sustainable farming techniques (no irrigation and free of pesticides). The family is one of the oldest wine-growing families in Sancerre. References to the family can be found in records dating as far back as 1550. André Dezat took over the family vineyards in 1948 and became actively involved in promoting the wines of Sancerre. The domaine is now run by his grandchildren.
www.dezat-sancerre.com

Food and wine
This wine goes with anything that a touch of lemon will enhance – oysters, lobster, dover sole and of course goat and sheeps cheese. Refer also to our food and wine pairing guide, click here

Did you know?
The Sauvignon Blanc vine has made the Southern Hemisphere its own and the wines it produces there differ significantly to Sancerre. At the one extreme one has the New Zealand Sauvignons, very aromatic, almost pungent. The South African and Chilean wines are somwhere in between the austere mineraly wines of the Loire and the New Zealnd ones. Seems like a wine for everyone's taste.