Sébastien Riffault
from Sancerre
The latest vintage has arrived!
We are excited to announce that Sébastien Riffault's new vintages are here! Sébastien and his wife make beautiful and intense wines in the village of Sury-en-Vaux, in the Loire Valley's Sancerre region. They farm 12 HA (35 small parcels), all certified biodynamic vineyards, and only harvest grapes that they farm themselves. They use no pesticides or SO2 (except a minimal amount for Les Quarterons), manually harvest their fruit 4-5 weeks after the rest of the winemakers in the region are done, ferment with wild yeasts, do not block malolactic fermentation and age the wines for years, first in stainless steel tanks, then in barrels. As they work with zero additives, the wines must be dry and be biologically stable.
We just tasted through the entire range and were blown away! We've put together some tasting notes to help you navigate through the new vintages of this wondrous world of Riffault's Sancerre.
Please write us at vip@vinatur.ch or Whatssap (Michelle @ +34 672 339 390) if you want personalized recommendations or have any questions about events, pop ups, restaurants and of course, our wines.
This vintage of Les Quarterons is absolutely stunning! September was a very dry month in 2018, and they had less botrytis than usual. Brace yourselves for a beautiful mix of flowers, peach and stone fruit. Clean, balanced, powerful and vertical. You need to always have a few bottles of this in your fridge! It also stays fresh and gorgeous for several days after opening, although we're pretty sure you'll finish the whole bottle. Yes, it's that good.
Sauvignon Blanc on Portlandian chalk, direct press and aged for two years in stainless steel tanks. Filtered and minimal addition of SO2 (10mg / L) at bottling.
The Akméniné cuvée comes from the same vineyards as Les Quarterons, planted in the 70's on Portlandian chalk. This wine is the key to begin discovering the wonderful world of Riffault's Sancerre, with 30% noble rot, aged for two years on stainless steel and another year in old barrels. The 2016 vintage has lovely oxidation and great balance. The acidity perfectly balances the honey wax and marmalade notes. Lots of honey on the finish. Perfect wine for the fall weather!
The Auksinis ("golden") vineyard is planted on Portlandian chalk, has 50% noble rot, direct pressed, and aged for two years in stainless steel and another year in old barrels. The color of this wine is so intense and golden, as its name suggests! The 2016 feels ripe, with beautiful oxidation and almost Schnapps notes on the nose. This wine feels and smells like a house during winter, full of spices and honey.
The Auksinis Macération is Riffault's only wine with skin contact (8-10 days). Don't be fooled by the golden color of all of his other wines...it's the botrytis (noble rot)! The 2016 vintage of the Auksinis Macération is golden, complex and intense. The flowery notes are present on the nose as well as the palate, all the way to the end. An "orange" wine like no other. This wine has a little bit of everything!
Skeveldra means "stone chard" in Lithuanian. This vineyard is planted on flinty soils, planted in the 50's, and has 50% noble rot, direct pressed, and aged for two years in stainless steel and another year in old barrels. Whoa. This wine!! Our minds were blown at the perfect balance between extreme and elegant. Sweet quincy notes from the oxidation and an intense full palate. vvvv
The Saulétas cuvée, which means "sunny", really impressed us. The touch of oxidation is present, but with lovely acidity and elegance to balance the quince and honey notes. So complex! We can't wait to see how this evolves in the bottle. The Saulétas vineyard is planted on Kimmeridgian soils, 50% noble rot, direct pressed, and aged for two years on stainless steel and another year in old barrels.
This is Riffault's only red, the Raudonas, which literally means red, from a tiny parcel of Pinot Noir (less than one HA) on clay - limestone soiils. It has 40% noble rot, and is aged for two years in stainless steel tanks and another in old barrels. The 2016 vintage is full of bright fruit and spices on the nose, and a spicy, bitter finish, with grippy tannins. Definitely not your ordinary Pinot Noir.