2019 Sancerre “La Plante Froide”:

The soils of “La Plante Froide” are poorer and stonier than those of “La Marâtre,” and its 35-year-old vines—among the domaine’s oldest—yield a wine of crystalline minerality, lifted fruit, and harmonious elegance. It constitutes a notable step up in complexity from the previous cuvées, offering a longer and more blatantly saline finish, yet it still displays a satisfying and unforced generosity on the palate. Cyril employs old 500-liter oak barrels for around half of this wine during its 12-month elevage, using the aforementioned barrel-shaped steel tanks for the rest, and their presence is felt not in any oak flavors but in a certain lengthening of texture and refinement of minerality.