2020 Edmond Vatan Sancerre Clos la Neore, Loire, France Magnum

Over the past decade, Edmond and Anne Vatan’s Sancerre “Clos la Néore” has gone, from virtually unknown outside the Loire, to becoming a top prize among sommeliers, merchants and connoisseurs worldwide. What they realize is that, from this small plot within Les Monts Damnés—Sancerre’s greatest vineyard—and through methods little-changed from those used by their family since the French Revolution, the Vatans fashion transcendently complex, very long-lived Sancerre that is among the world’s most riveting white wines. In fact, in how extraordinarily it develops with age, Vatan’s Clos la Néore has more in common with a Raveneau or Dauvissat Chablis than with most Sancerres. As View from the Cellar’s John Gilman has written, “In many regards I find that the wines of the Raveneau brothers and Monsieur Vatan are quite analogous in terms of evolutionary cycles and their potential for profundity with sufficient bottle age.” -Rare Wine Company