2024 | Domaine Serge Dagueneau & Filles Pouilly-Fumé "Les Pentes" | Loire | France

Old-vine Pouilly-Fumé from the other Dagueneau — the family branch that shares the famous name and the great terroir.

Domaine Serge Dagueneau & Filles farms old vines in Saint-Andelain, at the heart of Pouilly-Fumé. Serge and his daughter Valérie — uncle and cousin of the legendary Didier Dagueneau — work ~19 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc on the appellation's prime calcareous-clay sites, farmed to HVE3 standards with biodynamic trials. "Les Pentes" comes from steep hillside blocks, fermented cool and aged on fine lees for texture and depth.

Old-vine Pouilly-Fumé from a storied Dagueneau branch is a Loire insider's buy. Concentrated, mineral, lees-textured → the Didier Dagueneau wines cost many times more → at $48.99 you're drinking the family's great terroir.

• 100% Sauvignon Blanc
• Pouilly-Fumé, Loire Valley — Saint-Andelain, hillside "Les Pentes"
• Serge & Valérie Dagueneau (kin of Didier Dagueneau); HVE3
• Cool ferment; extended fine-lees aging

Meadow grass, white grapefruit and white blossom over a slick of lees and an alluring limestone buzz on the finish. Translation: flinty, textured Loire Sauvignon — citrus and smoke with real mineral cut and a saline, gunflint lift.

Serious old-vine Pouilly-Fumé from a famous family, at a fair price. Exactly the white for goat cheese, oysters, or grilled fish.