Domaine Pierre Menard
Pierre Menard Laika Sauvignon Blanc 2021
$ 35.50
(From Pierre:) This is the wine made from a small plot of old Sauvignon blanc located in le Clos de la Roche in Faye d'Anjou plus the first clusters from contiguous young vines. The old vines of le Clos de la Roche were among the first Sauvignon blanc in Anjou in the early 1960s and were planted on the top of a schist slope, close to le Quart des Nelles, a very uncommon terroir for a Sauvignon from the Loire that erases the varietal characteristics of the wine and expresses rather the structure of schist, almost like a Chenin. This vineyard is today one of the very few remaining sauvignon blanc still on schist rock soil in the area. Since its planting, 2014 has been the first single-vineyard wine from this atypical plot, a shot in the dark. This is the extraordinary, but terribly sad, story of Laika, this small dog first living creature in space. Hand harvesting, gentle pneumatic pressing, fermentation, and aging in barrels of 5 to 9 wines, sandstone amphora, and tank.