Sauvignon Blanc’s spiritual home is the eastern end of Loire Valley, which one can forget is less than an hour from Chablis.
He may seem shy and retiring but 40 year-old Valery Renaudat has a fiery past. In 1999, when he was 25, he had a massive blow-out with his father, bought a few of his own vines and built his own cellar in Reuilly. Over the last 15 years he has grown his vineyards from 2.5 to 22 hectares, 2/3 in Reuilly, 1/3 in Quincy. With the passage of time he has made-up with his father and stored his wine at his dad’s place while his new cellar was being built. He has now moved into his shiny new “chai”(cellar) at the entrance to the village and, although he is surrounded by sparkling new stainless steel tanks, he has still hung onto a couple of his lucky old fibreglass tanks that he started with.
Like the nearby village of Sancerre, Reuilly is overwhelmingly about zingy, grassy Sauvignon Blancs. We find Valery’s Sauvignon Blancs have a core of chalky minerality that keeps them fresh and lean, zizzy, zesty and evocative of running spring water, lime blossom and freshly cut grass.
