Northern whites of nerve and sinew

‘Claude Riffault is a shining star in Sancerre, producing suave, texturally intriguing, seemingly effortless wines’. Rebecca Gibb MW, vinous.com, Sancerre’s Charm Offensive, June 2023

The wines of Claude Riffault are top tier Sancerre; racy, piercing expressions of Sauvignon Blanc, but also possessed of unusual depth and texture. They have an unusually broad range of expression, and develop well with a few years of bottle age. Winemaker Stéphane Riffault is convinced that the vineyards and lieu-dits of Sancerre are among France’s great terroirs, able to produce ‘great white wines of stature and complexity’. He issues proofs in the bottle every year.

Stéphane had winemaking around him at the family domaine from an early age, but formal winemaking studies took him to Beaune. He has a lot of Burgundian connections: his brother Benoît is the winemaker at Domaine Etienne Sauzet, and the two are constantly comparing notes. Since Stéphane took over at Claude Riffault, he has transformed vineyard management for the better, from hand-harvesting to organics to biodynamics.

Stéphane ferments and ages his Sancerres in large wood, on the lees, avoiding malolactic fermentation. This careful, considered winemaking is how he achieves such intense, textured wines. Denisottes is a vineyard on Sancerre’s emblematic terres blanches soils (chalky, fossil-rich limestone), while Chailloux is on much flintier soil. Chailloux is tense and powerful, and the Denisottes is zesty and energetic. Monoparcelle 538 is a fuller old-vine cuvée from the Desmalets lieu-dit. Nor is it only white wines. Stéphane also makes a salty, mineral Sancerre rosé from Pinot Noir, and peppery red Sancerre (again, Pinot Noir) that has been made with some whole-bunch fermentation à la Burgundian. /NT