DOMAINE PAUL PRIEUR ET FILS

The Prieurs come from a long line of wine growers. The newest member of the family to take charge of the winemaking is the youthful and enthusiastic Luc Prieur, who completed his studies at Lycée Viticole in Beaune. The Burgundian philosophy is felt in their wines, with respect for individual vineyard plots and terroir driven expressions of Sancerre.

We now list all the wines crafted by Luc Prieur following single vineyard cuvées: Sancerre Blanc cuvées in Monts Damnés and Pieuchaud Silex and Pitaude, alongside their gorgeous Sancerre Blanc. The three reds are expressions of the lieu dit “Les Pichons”. We also list small amounts of Rosé and Pétillant Naturel, Bulles de Pinot. The Prieur’s try to intervene as little as possible in the vinification process. The wines are neither fined nor filtered.

The legendary Monts Damnés terroir was the first hill in Sancerre planted with vines. The grapes growing here reach excellent maturity and are always the last to be harvested. The wines produced are endowed with amazing substance and express all the mineral richness of their terroir. The precision applied in the racking operations and in the length of ageing preserves the wine’s potential.

The Pieuchaud Silex cuvée comes from the silex (flint) soils, in the commune of Thauvenay, southeast of the Sancerre appellation. The Silex soils make a very tense and nervy style of wine. One third of the wine is aged in 600l barrels between 2 to 4 years old with the rest in tank.

The vineyard of the Pitaude cuvée is interesting in that it suffers from court-noué, or fanleaf virus. This significantly reduces yields, producing tiny, concentrated millerandage berries and resulting in a wine bursting with energy.

The 5 hectares of Sancerre Rouge are grown in a local spot known as “Les Pichons” below the Monts Damnés hill. The soils are limestone clay (limestone subsoil). They are deep enough to enable the vines to root well and draw out all the richness of the terroir. 70% of the wine is aged in 228l barrels, of which 7% is new and 30% in amphora. The wine is then racked and blended. The mainly de-stemmed grapes go into open vats. After a few days’ cold, prefermentation maceration, fermentation takes place with indigenous yeasts and the performance of cap punching (pigeage) and gentle pumping over operations.

Both the Grains de Pinot and the Vinification En Grappes Entières come from the lower part of “Les Pichons”, with the difference being the proportion of whole-bunch grapes, Grains 20% and Grappes 100%.

The Les Pichons cuvée comes from the upper part of the terroir. The surface soil here is made up of a thin layer of marl derived from the erosion of the Monts Damnés. Poorer in nature, this soil creates clusters of grapes with very small, concentrated berries. Long ageing lasts 15 months in 228l barrels of which 15% are in new oak. The precision applied in the racking operations and in the length of ageing means that the wines do not have to undergo filtering or fining, thereby preserving their full potential.

The Rosé has 50-80% base wine from the given vintage blended with reserve wines from 2016 and before, ambient yeast fermentation and aging for 9 months in wooden tanks, lightly fined with bentonite, no filtration.

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