Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc
Region: Pouilly-Fumé, France
Vintage: 2021
Viticulture: Biodynamic
Soils: Silex
Vinification: Barrel fermented
Aging: Aged in 450 + 600L barrels as well as cigar barrels
Fining or Filtering: None
Sulfur: Minimal
Notes from the Importer: Clos du Calvaire is, as the Clos in the name suggests, a small walled vineyard completely restored by Dagueneau a few years ago. Vines are planted very densely here, at over twice the normal density for Pouilly. A horse is used to plow the land, and the vines are planted on their own roots rather than rootstock. Needless to say, all these (slightly nutty) considerations result in juice that is extremely concentrated and intense. The first was 1999! Mind blowing sauvignon blanc here, folks. And like nothing else in the world.
Since the beginning, the wines at Dagueneau have always been raised in oak barrels. Through extensive experimentation, there is always a mix of sizes, shapes, and percentage of new and used barrels which are exploited to varying degree depending on vineyard and vintage. The Dagueneaus have worked closely with the world’s top coopers to create some uniquely-shaped, very low-toast barrels (e.g. “cigares” and small foudres) that offer nuanced benefits of lees contact and/or specific oxygen exchange, all tiny facets that add up to a finer product in the end. The current regimen calls for wines to be held in oak for their first year, and then they are transferred to tank and held “en masse” for 5-7 months before bottling. While the wines can be drunk on release, like all great bottles, they benefit from extended aging in the cellar, 5-10 years usually to reach their peak, and can easily hold for 15-20 years or more (many of Didier’s first vintages still drink beautifully to this day!).
Sadly, tragedy struck on September 17, 2008, and Didier was killed when his plane crashed near Cognac. The world mourned the loss of one of its visionary winemakers who was 52 upon his death.
Didier was survived by his son and daughter, Louis Benjamin and Charlotte. Both had grown up at the winery, and in recent years, Benjamin had worked alongside his father in the vineyards and cellar and had very much absorbed his perfectionist attitudes and practices. Nonetheless, there were enormous shoes to fill, and the wine world watched with quiet reserve to see whether there would be any questions about the succession of this great estate.
The wines at Domaine Didier Dagueneau deserve their rightful place among the great 'singular' wines of the world. Eric Asimov, in his obituary of the late Didier Dagueaneau in the The New York Times, summed it up well: 'Tasting a Dagueneau wine for the first time was a revelation. His Sauvignon Blancs had an unexpected purity and clarity to them. The flavors were intense but nuanced. It wasn’t the fruit that was piercing, as in so many Sauvignon Blancs, but the freshness and the focus. As powerful a personality as he was, his wines did not exalt the stature of the winemaker so much as the beauty of the terroir.'"
