More about Domaine de Reuilly

Sancerre is one of the biggest names in wine—for good reason. But it has less famous neighbors with lots of the same charms and much better pricing. And today we've got two for you, starting with one of our perennial favorites.

It boasts a trinity of elements to make it great: a noble grape (Sauvignon Blanc, in this case), excellent terroir (Kimmeridgian limestone) and a world class importer (Kermit Lynch). What sort of wine results from this alchemy? Domaine de Reuilly’s exceptional Sauvignon Blanc, from the tiny Loire Valley village of Reuilly.

For centuries, Reuilly was a winemaking hotbed thanks to its excellent, limestone-rich soils and temperate, continental climate. Today, it’s our go-to appellation for crisp, aromatic and racy Sauvignon Blanc at a great price, especially if it’s Domaine de Reuilly’s “Pierres Plates.”

But Denis Jamain, the Domaine's winemaker, is producing much more than just “the poor man’s Sancerre.” These are for real wines, farmed biodynamically. His grandfather inaugurated the domaine in 1935, planting vines and a large oak forest at the same time. There’s a beautiful symbiosis here, with the oak trees being used to make barrels, a closed circuit encapsulation of the family’s singular terroir.

The old vines and great farming are at the service of great terroir: Kimmeridgian soils (the thick bands of ancient chalk that run from Champagne, through Chablis and to the Loire) contribute incredible structure and minerality. Kermit Lynch, importer extraordinaire and champion of the domaine, says of this influence, “there is a firmness, a stony firmness that appears from within the wine”.