Didier Dagueneau

Didier Dagueneau is one of the few winemakers in France whose very name carries the weight of legend. Living in the small village of Saint-Andlen in the Pouilly-Fumé appellation in the Loire Valley, for around 25 years he pushed boundaries, experimented and produced Sauvignon Blanc that no one else in the region was making. He died in September 2008 in a plane crash involving an ultralight aircraft at the age of 52. Since then, the winery has been run by his son Louis-Benjamin and daughter Charlotte.

History

Dagueneau was born in 1956 in Saint-Andelen into a family that had been growing grapes there for several generations. He was a fourth-generation winemaker, but did not want to join the family business on someone else’s terms. Instead, he spent several years competing in international sidecar motorcycle races, and in 1982 he returned to his village and built his own estate from scratch. His first plot was 1.2 hectares in En-Chaille, and in the same year he released his debut vintage. He drew inspiration from Burgundy, his main influences were Henri Jayer and Edmond Vatan, and applied this approach to the Sauvignon Blanc variety in the Loire, which his neighbours largely considered unnecessary or even wrong. He publicly criticised the widespread practice of over-harvesting in the appellation, made enemies, and was ultimately proven right. When he died, he was regarded as one of the most important producers of white wine in France.

Louis-Benjamin, who was 26 when his father died, had worked alongside him in the vineyards and the cellar. He immediately took over the management, and Charlotte joined him. The results were not long in coming. In 2018 the estate decided to reclassify its wines as ‘Vin de France’, abandoning the appellation system, a typically provocative move by Dagueneau, this time executed by the next generation.

Vineyards

The estate covers 12 hectares, centred around the Saint-Andlen hill. Each hectare is tended by roughly one full-time employee, a ratio virtually unheard of in the Loire and more typical of the finest Burgundian estates. Yields are kept low, typically between 50 and 75 per cent of what neighbouring estates produce. The soil is ploughed, sometimes using horses, to encourage deep root growth. Harvesting is carried out by hand, in several passes, with only grapes that have reached optimal ripeness being picked. No shortcuts. The domaine also cultivates around 3 hectares in Jurançon in south-western France.

Terroir

Saint-Andélen is situated on a mix of different soil types, which has formed the basis for Dagueneau’s approach, centred on working with individual plots. On the upper slopes, silex, silica mixed with clay, predominates, which drains the soil well and imparts a characteristic mineral note to the wines. On the lower slopes, the soils are richer in clay. Other plots are situated on calcareous marl or clay with silica. Each soil type yields a distinctly different result, and Dagueneau treated them as separate wines rather than as ingredients for a blend.

Grapes

Almost everything produced by this estate is Sauvignon Blanc, grown on various plots in Pouilly-Fumé and on a single plot in Sancerre. The exception is the Jurançon wine, Les Jardins de Babylone, which is made from the Petit Manseng variety, a sweet wine from terraced vineyards at the foot of the Pyrenees.

Winemaking

Dagueneau was one of the first producers in the Loire to begin fermenting and ageing Sauvignon Blanc in oak barrels, at a time when there was virtually no such tradition in the region. This approach was inspired by Burgundy, but applied with caution: oak is used to impart texture and contact with the lees, rather than to add aroma. Only indigenous yeasts are used during fermentation, with no acidification or chaptalisation. The wines are aged on the lees for around 12 months without racking in barrels of varying sizes, including specially made cigar-shaped barrels of 320 litres and larger foudres of 600 litres, after which they are transferred to tanks for a further few months before bottling. Louis-Benjamin continues to experiment with packaging, including ceramics and glass.

Wines

The estate produces several wines from specific plots.

- Silex, the best known of these, comes from old vines (aged 60 to 90 years) on siliceous clay at the top of the Saint-Andlen hill.

- Pur Sang (French for ‘thoroughbred’) is mainly produced from grapes from the La Folie vineyard, situated on deep clay soil mixed with limestone.

- Buisson Renard, made from grapes grown on more fertile clay soils lower down the slope, has a rounder flavour.

- Astéroïde, made from grapes grown on ungrafted vines dating back to before the phylloxera epidemic, is produced in very small quantities.

- Blanc Etc (formerly Blanc Fumé de Pouilly) is the estate’s entry-level wine, a blend of young grapes from various plots.

- Les Jardins de Babylone is a sweet Jurançon wine produced in collaboration with local winemaker Guy Potra.

All Pouilly wines are suitable for ageing; the more serious wines require a decade or more to reach their peak.

The best vintages

Didier's wines are among the most sought-after Sauvignon Blanc wines in the world for a good reason. The best vintages are: 1989, 1990, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2014 and 2016.