Paul Prieur Sancerre Blanc Les Monts Damnes 2019
Work in the vineyard is incredibly busy! Choosing organic viticulture in this very northern (sometimes very cold and wet) part of France requires lots of effort, especially given the choice to maintain grasses and other species in the vineyard. This is as opposed to tilling the soil (or using herbicides), which would reduce disease pressures, but would also reduce soil vitality, and carbon capture. But they manage to keep it all going, with lots of hard work.
The white grapes are all hand harvested, direct pressed, fermented with no additions except small amounts of SO2 post-MLF, and aged for up to 18 months. Depending on the cuvée and the power of the juice, elevage will be in tank or large oak.
Les Monts Damnés is the most intense of all, coiled up, but quite giving at the same time, with intense minerals and palate weight, but with a very surprising freshness and precision.
