Didier Dagueneau Blanc Fumé de Pouilly Silex 2016

Silex is the Dagueneau domaine's cuvée from the flint parcels on the butte of Saint-Andelain, made from vines of around fifty years.

Pouilly-Fumé sits on the right bank of the upper Loire, opposite Sancerre, on a patchwork of Kimmeridgian marl, limestone and silex — the bands of hard flint that lend the appellation's best wines their tension and struck-stone bite. Didier Dagueneau, born in Saint-Andelain in 1956, set up in 1982 and spent his career arguing that Sauvignon Blanc here deserved the same treatment as fine white Burgundy; since his death in 2008 his son Louis-Benjamin has run the estate on the same lines. The domaine works about twelve hectares, keeps yields severe, employs roughly twice the usual number of hands, ploughs by horse and picks in successive passes for ripeness. Silex is fermented and raised in the tapered, cigar-shaped barrels Dagueneau had built to his own design, and the wine goes into bottle unfined and unfiltered.

Give it three years and cellar for fifteen. Serve at 10–12°C with turbot, roast chicken or a well-aged goat's cheese.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.