Domaine Vincent Pinard - Sancerre Chêne Marchand 2023

Brothers Clément and Florent Pinard continue to keep their estate at the pinnacle of success. With no sales agent or representative, their wines are served at the finest Michelin-starred restaurants and exported, delighting a handful of loyal enthusiasts eager to taste their latest vintages. They cultivate their 17 hectares according to the principles of organic farming—though without certification—and began practicing biodynamics in 2018. They produce refined, delicate whites and full-bodied, fruit-forward reds, some made from whole-cluster harvests, which lend the Pinot additional richness and complexity and rank them among the finest wines of the Loire. Low sulfur content, indigenous yeasts carefully selected by the winemakers, and hand-harvesting—everything converges toward excellence, with every detail scrutinized and refined with each vintage. The eight white wines, in particular, offer a highly educational exploration of Bué’s diverse terroirs, ranging from limestone to silica and marl.

This large vineyard offers beautiful concentration and lemony acidity. Grown in a naturally sunny terroir, this wine has volume and body, but the altitude and limestone subsoil lend it a complementary freshness. With a chalky texture, it reveals aromas of sweet fruit and a gentle mineral acidity. Hand-harvested, it is fermented with yeasts from the vineyard. Unfined and unfiltered, it is aged for one year in large oak barrels.

Once again, Chêne Marchand captivates with its remarkable purity: a white wine that is both powerful and endowed with a stimulating bitter structure.

In the wine-growing village of Bué, the Pinard family has made their estate one of the most iconic in Sancerre. With each vintage, brothers Florent and Clément continually push their boundaries to craft a flavor profile that ever more closely reflects their terroirs—both in the vineyard (conversion to organic farming, yield control, optimal grape ripeness, etc.) and in the cellar (using yeast strains from their own vineyards for fermentation, extending aging in demi-muids, reducing the use of volcanic sulfur…). Florès proves to be an excellent introduction to understanding the stylized and perfectly calibrated approach to the whites. The intensity then builds with cuvées that embody specific lieux-dits, ranging from the salty and chiseled Petit Chemarin to the austere yet elegant power of Chêne Marchand, including Le Château, with its comforting density. The reds are no exception, with highly concentrated, increasingly well-defined structures. The wines acquire remarkable grace in the 2023 vintage.

The Chêne Marchand 2023 offers clarity and beautiful precision. It shows no harshness, despite its lively acidity, which lends it a refined character at its core. It is a very well-rounded wine, combining a lovely, reassuring roundness with a firm structure. The 2023 vintage is still young and will gain in fullness and richness with time in the bottle. Its primary character, with notes of citrus, will also become more interesting with age.