Régis Minet “Vieilles Vignes” Pouilly Fumé 2024

Kermit Lynch described Régis Minet’s Pouilly-Fumé as having “class and exquisite harmony.” The wine has a distinct elegance. The classic Sauvignon Blanc characteristics are present, but understated—floral notes, subtle citrus, a cool grassiness—and there’s a chalkiness so textural you can feel it as you taste. The overall impression is not of brash, over-the-top flavors, but of poise and refinement.

Sauvignon Blanc has many incarnations throughout the world, but even in the Loire Valley -- the grape's spiritual home -- Pouilly Fumé represents a very distinctive example. While it shares the Kimmeridgian limestone of its neighbor Sancerre, its soils also contain fragments of flint, which are presumably responsible for Pouilly Fumé's characteristic goût de pierre à fusil, or gunflint taste.

Régis Minet, a second-generation vigneron who already boasts almost forty harvests under his belt, is always happy to demonstrate how striking together two pieces of flint from his vineyard creates the smoky gunflint aroma typically associated with the wine. A generous host, Régis is known to greet his guests with cornucopian platters of locally produced meats and Loire goat cheeses. Not surprisingly, his lively, crisp, floral, and beautifully mineral Pouilly Fumé is the quintessential foil to savory slices of saucisson and a sticky Crottin de Chavignol.

Though the domaine still bears his name, Minet's step-daughter Lucia Mineur-Billet is in charge now. Driven by a desire to create, she left a successful career in wine sales to earn a degree in viticulture and take over the family estate. From sixteen different parcels representing the appellation’s diverse terroirs -- Kimmeridgian marl, calcaires de Villiers, and terres blanches, to name but a few -- Lucia crafts the archetypal Pouilly-Fumé. Fermenting each parcel individually gives her room to respond to every vintage’s unique characteristics while preserving, in her words, "the historical identity of the estate’s wines."