2024 Les Quatre Piliers Touraine "Chapitre I"

Domaine des Quatre Piliers is the work of Valentin Desloges, son of a Touraine grape grower, who set out to prove that the Touraine, often treated as a source of inexpensive, everyday Sauvignon Blanc, could produce something far more serious. Before returning home to start his own domaine, Valentin trained widely: with Vincent Sipp in Alsace, at Château Mangot in Saint-Émilion, in New Zealand studying Sauvignon Blanc in a completely different climate, and in Burgundy alongside white wine icons Raphaël Coche (of Coche-Dury) and Paul Pillot. His ten-hectare estate near Noyers-sur-Cher is farmed organically and divided into some 25 small parcels, worked individually like gardens. Chapitre I is 100% Sauvignon Blanc grown on a mix of clay and flinty limestone reminiscent of the silex soils found in nearby Pouilly-Fumé, just west of Sancerre. True to Valentin's Burgundian training, the wine is fermented entirely in wood, using a blend of barrels, demi-muids, and 350-liter casks (only around 10% new oak for this cuvée), with occasional bâtonnage during élevage and just a single racking over roughly 12 months of aging. It's bottled by gravity, unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulfur. Building on the more introverted 2023 vintage, the 2024 should show a more open, expressive character from the outset, likely offering the cuvée's signature combination of citrus (finger lime, orange rind), orchard fruit, spring flowers, and herbs, layered with a smoky, saline, almost sea-salt-like minerality, and the dense, textured, wood-framed structure the wine is known for. Past vintages have consistently drawn strong critical acclaim (Wine Advocate scores in the low 90s), often described as tasting more like a fine white Burgundy than a typical Loire Sauvignon Blanc.