Lucien Lusseau Les Pierres Blanches

About Lucien Lusseau Les Pierres Blanches

Lucien Lusseau Les Pierres Blanches comes from 40+-year-old vines grown on gabbro and volcanic soils, fermented in stainless, unfined, lightly filtered, and lightly sulfured. The result is mouth-wateringly refreshing and easy to drink.

About Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a white-wine grape from western France, now successfully grown in emerging and established wine regions all over the world. The variety produces lightly colored, aromatic dry white wines with fresh acidity. However, its geographical spread and versatility mean it is found in a range of styles from classic dry white wines; to individual, highly aromatic international interpretations; to unctuously sweet, botrytized wines.

The Upper Loire regions of Sancerre and neighboring Pouilly-Fumé are, arguably, the iconic appellations for Sauvignon Blanc both in France and for wine lovers worldwide. While Bordeaux also claims the variety, it is (in keeping with the winemaking of the region) often made as part of blended wine.

In the white wines of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, however, the grape appears alone, often seeing little to no oak, although top examples can undergo some oak aging.

Here the wines are mineral, citrusy, steely, bright and reasonably long-lived. Pouilly-Fumé wines get their name from the characteristic smokey, gunflint aromas associated with the wines of the area – “Pouilly Fumé” means “smoked Pouilly” (these wines can also be labeled “Blanc Fumé de Pouilly”, or Smoked White of Pouilly). This flinty aspect of the Sauvignon Blanc aroma is often found in Sancerre wines too and the struck flint aroma reportedly derives from the presence of high levels of chert (silica) in the local limestone soils.

Furthermore, the smokey, gunflint note and name (and this combination with toasty oak) is the origin of the Fumé Blanc style of white wine established in California – see below.

Sancerre and Pouilly are home to some of the top Sauvignon Blanc domaines in the world, from Dagueneau in the village of St-Andelin (Pouilly-Fumé) to the likes of Vacheron, Mellot, Cotat and Bourgeois in and around Sancerre. Many produce a range of wines from generic, regional labels to site-specific cuvées.

Satellite appellations around Sancerre and Pouilly – Menetou-Salon, Quincy, Reuilly – in the Upper Loire also produce excellent (and often less expensive) lookalikes, with the white wines from these regions all uniquely Sauvignon Blanc. It should be pointed out, however, that the wines of the Pouilly-sur-Loire appellation (which covers the same area as that of Pouilly-Fumé) are white wines made from the Chasselas grape variety.

Further west, the broad Touraine region covers the Central Loire crossover between Sauvignon Blanc (generally found further east – it is, along with Sauvignon Gris, a principal grape in the Cheverny Valençay appellation) and Chenin Blanc, planted in the more western regions of Touraine before the Chenin heartlands of Anjou-Saumur beyond.