Domaine François Cotat Sancerre Chavignol Les Culs de Beaujeu 2023
Domaine François Cotat
François Cotat's Sancerre from Les Culs de Beaujeu is Loire Sauvignon Blanc at its most skeletal and beautiful. The 2023 vintage delivers tension in every sip — acidity as architecture, minerality as mortar. This is not easy-drinking Sancerre; it is wine that demands attention and rewards it with complexity that unfolds over hours in the glass.
Nose
Intense citrus — grapefruit, white grapefruit pith — alongside wet flint and green apple. A subtle floral note, almost rose-like, emerges with air. The minerality is pronounced, chalky and persistent.
Palate
Razor-sharp acidity provides the backbone, carrying flavors of gooseberry, green apple, and a saline minerality across the palate. Mid-palate broadens into honeyed stone fruit, but the structure never relents. The texture is lean and almost tactile.
Finish
Long, with citrus pith, chalky minerality, and a bracing acidity that lingers. The faintest hint of honey softens the exit.
- Varietal
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Blend
- 100% Sauvignon Blanc
- Vineyards
- Les Culs de Beaujeu, Chavignol, Sancerre — steep Kimmeridgian marl and limestone slopes
- Alcohol
- 13.0%
- Organic / Biodynamic
- No
- Skin Contact
- No
Food Pairing
Aged Crottin de Chavignol goat cheese with toasted walnut bread and a drizzle of acacia honey. The wine's bracing acidity cuts through the cheese's creaminess, while its mineral depth mirrors the chalky terroir that both wine and cheese share.
Hand-harvested and vinified by François Cotat in the hamlet of Chavignol, where his family has worked the steep Kimmeridgian marl slopes of Sancerre for generations using traditional methods and late harvest timing.
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