Philippe Gilbert Sauvignon Blanc Menetou-Salon AOP 2022

In the Loire Valley’s Menetou-Salon, a small appellation neighboring the famous Sancerre, the Gilbert family has been doing the wine thing for a little while now—since 1768. However, it wasn’t until Philippe Gilbert, the latest (ninth) generation and current steward, left his career as a dramatist to take over the family domaine’s reins in the 2000s that the wines became invigorated with a distinct finesse, concentration and specificity. Aided by friend and fellow vigneron François Leupe, he began to work the nearly 30-hectare estate organically in 2003 and began implementing biodynamics three years later (the first in the area!), earning certifications for each in 2006 and 2017, respectively. He’s also taken a progressively low-interventionist approach in the cellar, fermenting with native yeasts, fining just with diatomaceous earth or bentonite and never filtering. Made from 25-or-so-year-old vines across a patchwork of six clayey-limestone soil plots, this is the estate’s village-level offering, but it tastes anything but entry: Supple, soulful and elegant, complex yet approachable, it wafts pastry-accented aromas of jasmine and white peach that pour into a softened minerally palate of Comice pear and lemon blossoms. Certified organic, certified biodynamic, low-intervention/natural wine.