Gerard Boulay Comtesse Sancerre 2020

This rare bottling comes from just 0.40 hectares of 70-year-old vines in the Comtesse lieu-dit at the chalky epicentre of Les Monts-Damnés. For hundreds of years or more, this vineyard has been considered by locals to be the finest single terroir of Chavignol. The soil composition is pure Kimmeridgian limestone and consists of a miserly 30 to 40cm layer of topsoil over solid limestone bedrock. This brings intense minerality and also warmth, as the rocky soil absorbs the heat of the sun and irradiates back at night. Therefore, it’s a site that always produces fully ripe fruit, together with intense freshness—hence the historical fame. When he was Inspector General of the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée board, Pierre Bréjoux noted that there are some wines of Sancerre that “…one would like to have a throat as long as a swan’s neck so as to taste them better.” Boulay’s Comtesse is one such Sancerre.

Tasted next to the Monts-Damnés, this ramps things up a notch in terms of ripeness, length and pungent mineral intensity. It has that diamond-cut clarity aligned with intensity of perfectly ripened fruit that is a hallmark of this release, but here there’s also something more elemental. It’s tightly packed with orchard fruits, lemongrass, jasmine and iodine, all pulsating around a core of earthy, stony character. Powerful, but not remotely heavy, the palate combines the texture of the Monts-Damnés with the mineral backbone of the La Côte. A wine as profound as this region can gift.