To find Domaine Vacheron's cellars in the middle of the ancient town of Sancerre you'll first have to get lost in its winding streets. Down one alley, then another shortcut, your phone loses its signal, and you find yourself asking old ladies on their way home from church for directions. But when you get there you'll feel like you've made it to the very heart of Sancerre, and when you taste the wines, you'll feel you're getting to know its soul.

Vacheron has vines in many of the best hillside vineyards around the village. Many of those wines end up in single vineyard bottlings (Les Romains, Guignes Chevres etc.) that are the sort of precise expressions of terroir that would satisfy even the biggest Burgundy geek's desire for individualized expressions: the texture of limestone vs the aromatics of flint; the generous fruit of the southerly exposure vs the lacy, even wiry, profile of the northerly.

The thing is, if what you want is to know what Sancerre is truly all about, you can't do any better than Vacheron's. It's a blend of hillside sites and even includes some wine from those illustrious single-vineyard plots. It's almost evenly divided between flint and limestone sources (with about 10% marl) and it does it all: bracingly fresh, textured, complex, and yet, effortless. It's clear that the Vacherons work very hard to make wine this perfect. But the wine itself doesn't seem like it needs to try.

The Vacherons are building a new tasting room on the top floor of their domaine, with a patio that gives views over the town's rooftops and to the hillside vines around it. We can't imagine a better place to discover the truth of Sancerre. But if the Central Loire isn't in your travel plans this summer, we highly recommend cracking a bottle of this beautiful white wherever you are, and letting the true spirit of Sancerre reveal itself to you.

Vacheron, Sancerre Blanc, 2022 $56.99
People have been making noise that 2022 is one of the greatest vintages ever in Sancerre, with perfectly pitched acidity and fruit that is ripe enough beguile when young and to evolve with time. Vacheron's Sancerre is a strong argument for the vintage's greatness: delicious, refreshing fruit, yes, but also complexities of minerality and texture that put it among France's true noble wines.