Founded in 1987, Pascal Jolivet is one of the most dynamic estates in France's Loire Valley. Located in Sancerre, the estate now owns seventy hectares of vineyards spread across the Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé appellations. The estate supplements its estate with additional fruit sourced from long-term contract growers, some of the region's most important sites, including Les Caillottes, Le Chêne Marchand, and Le Clos du Roy. Pascal shares his philosophy with winemaker Valentina Buoso: working in harmony with nature to produce wines with pure fruit, a linear character, and minerality, allowing the natural expression of the vineyard to imbue the wines with a sense of place.
Jolivet owns 42 hectares of vineyards in Sancerre, at an altitude of 200 to 400 meters, near the villages of Bué, Verdigny, and Ste Gemme. Its location, close to the Loire River and surrounded by forest, creates a relatively mild microclimate for the vineyards. This wine is selected from a 3.5-hectare plot of forty-year-old vines planted on south-facing slopes at the top of the village of Bué-en-Sancerre in the area known as "La Plante des Prés," one of the best locations in Sancerre. The soils are rich in limestone with excellent drainage. Yields are very low: the old vines produce less than 45 hectoliters per hectare. The vines are trained using a vertical shoot positioning system.
The grapes are hand-picked and hand-sorted, then gently pressed. The juice is then fermented in stainless steel with wild yeasts for 25 days at 18 degrees Celsius. After fermentation, the wine is aged for another two months in stainless steel before bottling. This creates a concentrated wine with a hint of green. A fresh, intense aroma of citrus and green notes. Powerful flavor with a mineral finish.
