Domaine de la Pauline Sancerre

Eric Louis’ labels bear the name of his great-great-grandmother Pauline, who established the family’s reputation for quality wines all the way back in the 1860’s. The domaine is located just outside the village of Thauvenay, one of Sancerre’s 14 communes in the southeast section of the appellation. Most of the domaine’s vineyards are just a caillote’s throw from the Loire River. Though avoiding the bureacratic headaches associated with certification, Eric tends his vines organically, limits yields, and schedules pruning, ploughing and picking according to lunar cycles (Maria Thun calendar). White, red and rosé Sancerres are vinified in the domaine’s two cellars in the heart of the village. In addition to his classic stainless steel fermented Sancerre, young Eric pays homage to his great-great-grandmother with a special bottling called Cuvée Pauline. A very unusual Sauvignon Blanc, Eric’s vin de garde comes from the family’s oldest vines and is aged for ten months sur lie in neutral oak and acacia barrels.