Claude Riffault Sancerre Les Chasseignes 2021

Professional Ratings

• 93 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2021 Sancerre Les Chasseignes opens with an excitingly pure, mineral and coolish (limestone) nose with mocha and very fine phenolic aromas reminiscent of gooseberries. Predominantly sourced in the upper part of the limestone lieu-dit where Riffault holds 7.5 well-ventilated acres, the wine opens with a pure and rocky bouquet of iodine, dashes of lemon juice and hints of mocha. Aged in large barrels of 2,000 liters (and some smaller barrels) for 14 months, this is a full-bodied, pure, fresh and saline Sancerre with intensity, fine and mealy tannin grip and lively mineral acidity that carries the wine to a quite long, pure and naked finish with lots of mineral tension, grip, lime zest and iodine flavors. This is not really austere (too juicy) but a kind of wine with thrills and tension as well as energy. Biodynamic farming. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in March 2023. Best After 2023

• 92 Vinous

  The 2021 Les Chasseignes is elegant, supple and shows excellent clarity. It highlights citrus and elderflower notes with a trace of nuttiness from long lees aging. The 2021 displays delightful tension and is finely poised with a long thread of acidity, pulling the wine through to its long conclusion.