2015 Domaine Matthias Roblin Sancerre Origine

Matthias Roblin’s first commercial vintage was 2000 and of that debut the English magazine Decanter wrote: "Searing concentration of lime and elderflower fruit with refreshing acids. Long and even with a steely mineral character. Fine."

The magazine went on to select Matthias’ 2003 Sancerre as the best white table wine to come out of the Loire in 2005 (World Wine Awards, October, 2005). Given the torrid heat of that endless summer, one in which making a fresh wine was all but impossible, this was quite the honor. Decanter then profiled Matthias in its September 2006 issue, naming him among five new faces to watch in the Sancerre appellation.

In 2006 his younger brother, Emile, joined him, and now these two work alongside their father (he's in the middle of the photograph on this page; Matthias is on the right with glasses; Emile is on the left), who, with their uncle, used to manage the production at Château de Maimbray until 2010 when those two brothers retired.

Matthias and Emile’s vines grow on the hillsides of Maimbray and Sury-en-Vaux in the northern sector of Sancerre. This zone is known for its terres blanches or Kimmeridgian Marls—white soils made of clay and marl and stones on top of Kimmeridgian limestone, and make for pointed, powerful wines that need a couple of years in bottle to show best (and indeed have the potential to age surprisingly well, but almost never are permitted to do so). The brothers have 14 hectares (35 acres) in Sauvignon Blanc and 2.5 (6 acres) in Pinot Noir.

Matthias and Emile have been steadily upgrading their cellar and now are able to work with gravity to move their wine during the fermentation process.

The Wines

• Sancerre blanc Origine: This, their classic bottling, stays on its lees until January or February after the harvest, and is bottled roundabout May after a light fining and filtration. Some 80+% of the vines for this wine grow in Kimmeridgian; the remainder in Portlandian limestone (which has less clay than Kimmeridgian but more than Oxfordian). The annual production averages 5,800 cases.