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france: loire_valley

Domaine Henry Natter, Sancerre

In the early 1970s Henry met Cécile in distant Montigny and fell in love. They married, raised a family, but before Henry could live happily ever after he had to clear a whole lot of hillside brush and trees to plant their vineyards. These now amount to 20.5 hectares and are farmed organically. Domaine Natter is the only winemaking domaine in Montigny, a village nestled in the western hills of the Sancerre AC. The viticulture was larger in the days before phylloxera; now cereals reign.

The Natters are regularly included in Bettane & Desseauve's annual classification of the top domaines in France (that country's most serious guide). This domaine does two things that are practically unique in the Sancerre AC: they use native rather than cultured yeast, and they ferment in old wooden foudre rather than in steel or fiberglass tanks. These are atypical wines by today's Sancerre standards, but one could argue that these natural wines enjoy true typicité—to use a good French word—that today's mass-produced Sancerres simply cannot claim. The Natters bottle their wines without fining and with only a light filtration. Their two Sauvignons are elegant, subtle, minerally, and very long, distinctly classy stuff. Taste them in a line up of other Sancerres and their quiet quality will arrest you.

Don't overlook Natter rosé either; it's one of Sancerre's best. Henry and Cécile did an internship at Domaine Ott in Provence way back when, and they know a thing or two about rosé.