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Domaine de Chézatte

Domaine de Chézatte farms 30 hectares in Sainte-Gemme-en-Sancerrois, making stainless-steel Sancerre Blanc, skin-contact Cuvée Prestige and Pinot Noir Sancerre Rouge Silex from pure flint.

The producer

Domaine de Chézatte farms 30 hectares in Sainte-Gemme-en-Sancerrois, the northernmost village of the Sancerre appellation, with 24 hectares beside its cellar. Its central bottle, Sancerre Blanc, is 100% Sauvignon Blanc aged in temperature-controlled stainless steel. Lemon, lime, apple and mineral notes meet fresh body, mouth-watering acidity and a long finish.

Two days of skin contact make Cuvée Prestige rounder and greasier, with fruit and floral aromas. Sancerre Rouge Silex shifts to Pinot Noir planted on pure flint, bringing pale colour, delicate red fruit and tannin. The estate's two-thirds clay-with-flint and one-third limestone vineyards, south-east-facing hillside and HVE certification define the setting for these distinct bottle styles.

Known for

Sauvignon Blanc Sancerre from clay-with-flint and limestone, stainless-steel ageing, two-day skin-contact Cuvée Prestige, and Pinot Noir Sancerre Rouge Silex from pure flint.

Notable facts

The story

The 2022 Chardonnay Addition

In 2022, Domaine de Chézatte added an Extra-dry Chardonnay sparkling wine to its range. The bottle arrived beside Sancerre Blanc, the estate's 100% Sauvignon Blanc white, and changed both the grape and the format in the line-up. Still wines from clay-with-flint, limestone and pure flint had established the estate's usual vineyard language. The new wine brought Chardonnay and bubbles into that family of bottles, with an Extra-dry style. It was described as very rare for the Sancerre region, where Sauvignon Blanc anchors the white appellation. The range now included fresh, stainless-steel-aged Sauvignon Blanc alongside a sparkling Chardonnay made for a different kind of pour.

From the atlas

Domaine de Chézatte

At A Glance

Domaine de Chézatte farms 30 hectares in Sainte-Gemme-en-Sancerrois, the northernmost village of the Sancerre appellation, with 24 hectares gathered beside the cellar. The estate's core white is Sancerre Blanc, made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc and aged in temperature-controlled stainless steel. Cuvée Prestige adds two days of skin contact for a rounder, greasier texture, while Sancerre Rouge Silex brings Pinot Noir from pure flint into the range.

The Producer

Domaine de Chézatte has the physical scale of a substantial estate, but its wines are defined by clear changes in grape and cellar method. The domaine sits in Sainte-Gemme-en-Sancerrois, a village within the Sancerre appellation, and its principal bottle is Sancerre Blanc, a white appellation wine made entirely from Sauvignon Blanc. Stainless-steel ageing keeps the wine focused on citrus, freshness and mineral flavour.

The estate also makes two wines that alter the reading of that same address. Cuvée Prestige uses skin contact to give Sauvignon Blanc more breadth and weight. Sancerre Rouge Silex shifts to Pinot Noir planted on pure silex, or flint. The range moves from a direct white to a more textured white and then to a pale, delicate red.

Place

The domaine lies about 2 kilometres from the centre of Sainte-Gemme, at the foot of a south-east-facing hillside. Sainte-Gemme-en-Sancerrois gives the bottles their village and appellation setting, while the hillside places the vines in a single, identifiable physical landscape. The estate's 24 contiguous hectares beside the cellar also keep much of the work close to one address, from vineyard parcels to cellar handling.

That setting appears most directly in the white wine's freshness and mineral notes. Sancerre Blanc is intended for drinking within three years of the vintage, when its citrus fruit, acidity and clean mineral finish are at the centre of the experience.

Soil And Site

Two-thirds of the vineyards sit on clay-with-flint soil, known locally as argilo-siliceux, and one-third on limestone. The clay-with-flint and limestone parcels provide the setting for the estate's Sauvignon Blanc wines, where lemon, lime, apple and mineral notes meet a fresh body and mouth-watering acidity.

The red takes a separate route. Sancerre Rouge Silex is Pinot Noir from pure flint, so the grape and parcel change together. Its pale colour and delicate red-fruited character place it apart from the white range, while the flint site gives the bottle a direct connection to one specific part of the estate.

Story

Gabriel and Isabelle Maudrey arrived at the estate in 1932 and began the family winemaking lineage that continues through four generations. In 1977, Annick and Gérard took over from the second generation and modernized the operations. Marie and Vincent entered the fourth generation in 2008, carrying the estate into a newer phase without leaving the family address behind.

The range has continued to move as the family has moved through the estate. The core remains Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre, handled to preserve freshness in stainless steel, while Cuvée Prestige changes the white through skin contact and Sancerre Rouge Silex gives Pinot Noir a place beside it. In 2022, the estate added an Extra-dry Chardonnay sparkling wine, opening a separate path for the range.

Vineyards And Cellar

The estate holds Haute Valeur Environnementale certification, placing environmental management among its documented farming credentials. In the cellar, Sancerre Blanc is aged in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The controlled, neutral vessel keeps oak flavour out of the wine and preserves the citrus aroma, mineral notes and mouth-watering acidity associated with the bottle.

Cuvée Prestige makes a more visible cellar choice. Two days of skin contact give the Sauvignon Blanc a rounder, greasier feel than the standard white, with fruit and floral aromas in place of a purely direct profile. The change is tactile as much as aromatic, so the bottle belongs to a different part of the range even though it shares the same grape.

Wines

Sancerre Blanc is the central white: 100% Sauvignon Blanc, citrus-led, fresh-bodied and mineral in flavour, with a long finish. Its stainless-steel élevage keeps the wine direct and bright. Cuvée Prestige is the textural white, using two days of skin contact to bring a rounder, fuller and greasier impression, alongside fruit and floral aromas.

Sancerre Rouge Silex is the red expression, made from Pinot Noir on pure flint. It has a lighter colour and delicate red-fruited profile, with tannin and stated ageing potential giving it a different role from the two whites. The 2022 Extra-dry Chardonnay sparkling wine adds bubbles and a new grape to the estate's still-wine range, a separate bottle for those who want to see the domaine move beyond Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

In The Glass

Sancerre Blanc rises first with lemon, lime and apple, followed by mineral hints that keep the aroma from becoming merely fruity. On the palate, Sauvignon Blanc brings a fresh body and mouth-watering acidity. The finish is long, with fruit and minerality held together by the stainless-steel cellar work.

Cuvée Prestige changes the movement across the palate. Skin contact gives the wine a fuller, greasier feel, while its fruit and floral nose adds a broader aromatic register. Sancerre Rouge Silex moves into pale Pinot Noir, delicate red fruit and fine tannin from the flint parcel. An older reference point comes from the 2001 Sancerre, which retained freshness, carried boxwood notes in the nose and mouth, and finished with a lively attack suited to Loire fish dishes.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Sancerre Blanc. It brings the estate's place, grape and cellar choice into one bottle: Sauvignon Blanc from Sainte-Gemme-en-Sancerrois, aged in temperature-controlled stainless steel, with lemon, lime, apple and mineral aromas. In the mouth, it is fresh and well-filled, with mouth-watering acidity, a balance of fruit and minerality, and a long finish.

The stated drinking window is within three years of the vintage, so this is a bottle for fresh, direct Loire flavour. It gives the first taste of the estate before the range branches into the rounder Cuvée Prestige or the flint-grown Pinot Noir of Sancerre Rouge Silex.

Anecdote

In 2022, Domaine de Chézatte added an Extra-dry Chardonnay sparkling wine to its range. The new bottle placed Chardonnay beside the estate's Sancerre Blanc, a white made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc, and brought bubbles to a domaine known for still wines from clay-with-flint, limestone and pure flint. The wine was described as very rare for the Sancerre region, where Sauvignon Blanc anchors the white appellation. It was a separate sparkling expression, built around Chardonnay and an Extra-dry style, not a change to the estate's main white. The 2022 range therefore included a new grape, a new format and a bottle that looked beyond the usual still Sancerre line-up.

Final Word

Domaine de Chézatte offers a clear way into Sancerre through three different bottles. Sauvignon Blanc gives citrus, acidity and mineral flavour in stainless steel. Skin contact adds weight to Cuvée Prestige. Pinot Noir on pure flint makes the red lighter and more delicate. The estate's size, hillside setting and family continuity give those choices a firm physical home.

Sources

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