{"product_id":"domaine-firmin-dezat-sancerre-prestige-2024","title":"Domaine Firmin Dezat Sancerre \"Prestige\" 2024","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost Sancerre never sees a barrel. The Prestige does, and it comes from a single half-hectare parcel on the Côte de Chaudoux, the slope above the Dezat cellars in Verdigny, one of the northern villages of the Sancerre appellation. The domaine farms three soil types across its 12 hectares of Sancerre: caillottes, silex and terres blanches, and each is picked and vinified apart. This cuvée is 100 percent terres blanches, the Kimmeridgian marl and limestone that gives Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre its weight and its chalky, slow-building finish. The vines were planted about 60 years ago at 6,700 plants per hectare, and old roots in marl push the wine toward texture rather than the grassy snap of younger, stonier sites.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDomaine Firmin Dezat Sancerre Prestige 2024 is 100 percent Sauvignon Blanc, hand-harvested into small cases and pneumatically pressed. It then ferments and ages entirely in 500-liter oak barrels, resting ten months on fine lees with bâtonnage once a month before bottling in August, the way Firmin's grandfather André made it. Only about 2,500 bottles are produced. Expect pale straw, white flowers, white peach and a touch of pineapple, then a broad, lees-rounded mid-palate with a little toast from the wood held in check by firm acidity, finishing long and chalky. 2024 was brutal in the Centre-Loire: spring frost and hail, rainfall roughly double the annual average, relentless downy mildew, low yields, and a harvest stretched from mid-September into the first two weeks of October. The reward was whites with freshness and lower alcohol than recent years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Dezat family has tended vines around Sancerre since about 1550, and Firmin is the eighteenth generation. His grandfather André took over in 1948 and dug the cellars still in use today; André's sons Louis and Simon modernized and expanded in the 1970s, adding Pouilly-Fumé and, in 2006, Menetou-Salon. Firmin studied viticulture and enology in Tours, worked harvests in California, came home in late 2011, and took full charge when his father Simon retired in 2020. He moved the 23-hectare estate to HVE 3 in 2017, began organic conversion in 2021 and 2022, and now works all soils mechanically with only natural vine treatments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe oak and lees want richer dishes than classic Sancerre. Try pan-seared scallops with brown butter and a squeeze of lemon, where the barrel texture matches the sweetness of the shellfish and the acidity cuts the butter. Roast chicken with tarragon cream sauce works for the same reason. A wedge of aged Crottin de Chavignol, the goat cheese made a few kilometers away, sharpens the chalky finish. Or pour it beside halibut en papillote with leeks and thyme. This is the Sancerre to open when you want the real thing with a little more weight behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Willette Wines","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67907678109919,"sku":null,"price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/PA030458.jpg?v=1791073999","url":"https:\/\/denverwinemerchant.com\/products\/domaine-firmin-dezat-sancerre-prestige-2024","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}