'Great white wines of stature and complexity'
The crus of Burgundy are well-mapped and understood; less so, the vineyards and lieu-dits of Sancerre. But for winemaker Stephane Riffault, these are among France's finest terroirs, able to produce 'great white wines of stature and complexity'. He is on a mission to show just that. Since taking up the reins at his small family domaine Claude Riffault, he has been producing a range of intense, textured, terroir-driven Sancerres which prove that the region can stand proud on the world wine stage.
Stephane had winemaking around him from an early age, but formal winemaking studies took him to Beaune. He has a lot of Burgundian connections: his brother Benoit is the winemaker at Domaine Etienne Sauzet, and there is a constant exchange of ideas between the two. After a stage in Bordeaux, Stephane returned to Sancerre. By this time he had some pretty clear ideas about how to improve things. He switched to organics. He introduced large old barrels alongside the domaine's steel vats, which brought more texture to the wines. And he dramatically increased the amount of lees aging, which he believes leads to more complex, ageworthy wine. Pretty soon, the critics noticed. Claude Riffault landed on the radar and started getting some high scores.
Chailloux is a flinty vineyard; Stephane's Chailloux cuvee is elegant and complex, with notes of lime and fennel, then a very mineral finish. Denisottes is a vineyard on Sancerre's emblematic terres blanches soils; Stephane's Denisottes marries notes of stonefruit and tomato leaf in a wine that is both fine and powerful. And there's some red. Stephane also has a couple of hectares of Pinot Noir in La Noue, a terres blanches vineyard where the vines vary in age from very young to a hundred years old. Red Sancerre can seem thin, but La Noue is remarkable and intense. /NT
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