Gerard Boulay Sancerre Clos Beaujeu 2020

Le Clos de Beaujeu is one of Boulay’s ‘blue-blood’ historic sites. Boulay farms two parcels in this terroir, including one within the original Clos of this vineyard, established by the monks of Beaujeu in the Middle Ages. Vines on this slope of Kimmeridgian limestone and clay (terre blanches) are between 30 and an incredible 110 years old. The soils here are particularly rocky—limestone rich and strewn with fossils—like parts of Chablis in fact. These rocky soils make this a parcel that is very difficult to farm. A second, even steeper parcel at a 60 percent gradient lies closer to the village.
 
Together these south-east facing plots make the Clos de Beaujeu the source of some of the domaine’s most structured and nervy wines. This was naturally fermented and raised in large, upright cask (60%) and in three- and four-year-old 300-litre barrels (40%), for 10 months. 

With a little more nerve and salinity than the due-south-facing Monts Damnés, this throws off a charged mineral presence, with waves of pulpy mirabelle plum and iodized orchard fruit immediately countered by rapier acidity, buzzing tension and mouth-watering salinity. It’s an intense, well-structured and powerfully driven Sancerre, with the amplified finish leaving a lasting, salty impact. A stop-you-in-your-tracks wine.