2022 Sancerre Les Calcaires
LUCIEN CROCHET
+28233- France
- Loire Valley
12 x 750
At Lucien Crochet the emphasis is on creating wines of finesse and complexity that are faithful to both terroir and vintage. The vineyards are located around the towns of Bué, Sancerre and Crézancy, the finest of which is the limestone-based Chêne Marchand vineyard. Gilles Crochet, Lucien's son, makes the wines as naturally as possible using indigenous yeasts. Through hand picking, careful selection of the grapes and long, slow ageing 'sur lie', Lucien Crochet produces sophisticated and age-worthy Sancerre.
29 hectares are planted with Sauvignon Blanc to produce their range of white wines. The remaining 9 hectares are planted with Pinot Noir which produces lovely Sancerre Rouge and a very small quantity of sensational Sancerre Rosé.
The Crochet family have been making wine in the village of Bué for generations but the current steward, Gilles, along with his wife Laurence, has been at the helm since 1983. Having trained in Dijon, Crochet explains formal training may have given him a greater technical understanding of wine but little has changed: “I do the same things as my father but I know why.” The domaine covers 35 hectares of vineyard on clay-limestone soils and it was an early adopter of organic viticulture, beginning the conversion in 1989: “Everybody in Sancerre said Crochet was crazy!” All the grapes are hand harvested before being whole bunch pressed, producing delicate, pure styles across the range – a manageable range of five cuvées: three whites as well as a rosé and a red. Having spent his training days working at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy, Crochet is a fan of Pinot Noir and has 9ha dedicated to the variety. His sizeable 5ha of vineyard dotted across the lieu-dit of Chêne Marchand is the source of the estate’s finest wine, which is always pure and refined with silken texture.
July 2022
