Francois Crochet

François Crochet, winemaker from Sancerre, Loire Valley
François Crochet's vineyards in Sancerre, Loire Valley
François Crochet's vineyards in Sancerre, Loire Valley
Mixture of limestone marl, chalk and flint from François Crochet's vineyards
Rocks in Sancerre composed of Kimmeridgian, an ancient tiny sea creature that closely resembles today’s oyster
François Crochet walking through his vineyards in Sancerre
François Crochet's vineyards in Sancerre
Kimmeridgian rocks in Sancerre
Kimmeridgian rocks in Sancerre from François Crochet's vineyards
François Crochet's vineyard rocks in Sancerre
Old wine bottles of François Crochet's Sancerre blanc
Sauvignon blanc vines from François Crochet's vineyards in Sancerre
Sauvignon blanc vines from François Crochet's vineyards in Sancerre
François Crochet vineyards contain a mixture of limestone marl, chalk and flint.

Photography and writing by Ted Vance.

The first time I met François, he was very quiet. Then, I made the mistake of telling him that his French was articulate and very clear- a much easier accent to understand than those from the south of the France. He smiled, then an eruption of extremely intense French came at me like a philosophical freight train. His bright blue laser eyes dug in and his mouth was moving a mile a minute. It was that moment that I understood how intense of a perfectionist François is. He is one of the most passionate people I have ever met.

François graduated from the famous enology school in Beaune, France. After school, he cut his teeth by working at Domaine Bruno Clair. François took over his father’s winery not too long ago and has been turning heads everywhere, first in France and now here. He is one of the first to pick in Sancerre so the acidity of his wines rage. Counterintuitively, the wine doesn’t have the green pepper notes that one would expect from wines harvested so early. I don’t know how he does it, but the wine finds such a perfect balance of power, beauty and finesse.

Sancerre is one of the most famous places in France for white wine. It is located on the left bank of one of France’s most famous rivers, the Loire. Sancerre is one of the fastest selling wines in the market because they offer great value for the price. While Sancerre makes red wines from the Pinot Noir grape, it is most famous for the white Sancerre made from Sauvignon Blanc.

The Sancerre region sits on top of a series of hills and small valleys that were once under the ocean. The ocean deposited all sorts of calcium rich shells from ancient sea-life. In the case of Sancerre, the most famous rock here is called Kimmeridgian, which is made primarily of an ancient tiny sea creature that closely resembles today’s oyster. The rest of the vineyard land is a mixture of limestone marl, chalk and flint. One can also find quite a lot of red and brown clay soils that are clearly marked with a good dose of iron.

Les Amoureuses

Francois Crochet - 2019 Sancerre Blanc,’ Les Amoureuses’

Price: $50.00
Size: 750ml
Availability: 

Out of stock

Type of Wine: White
Style: High acid, Mineral

The Wine

Les Amoureuses is a compilation of three different sites within Bué, a commune in the western area of Sancerre. Like much of Sancerre, this is limestone country, and Les Amoureuses is a blend of three different parcels with heavier clay topsoil than any other parcels within his collection. The name, Les Amoureuses, translated from French as “the lovers,” and was given to the wine because of how the rich clay topsoil clings to the boots when the soil is even only slightly wet. As it turns out, most wines from other areas with the same name, like the famous and rare Chambolle Musigny premier cru, had the same concept in mind. The clay rich soil makes Les Amoureuses a freight train of Sauvignon Blanc, and the most powerful and generous wine within François’ range of white Sancerre—it’s a crowd pleaser. It’s fermented in stainless steel vats and aged in a large, twenty-liter old tronconic (vertical and slightly tapered at the top) French oak vat. These days, more and more of Crochet’s Sancerres are aged in these, but Les Amoureuses was the first he tried with them, because wines rendered from heavy clay soils generally benefit from the sculpting effect of wood and its affinity for extremely slow microoxygenation to soften what may otherwise be an overabundance of unbridled energy.

About The Wine

Les Amoureuses is a compilation of three different sites within Bué, a commune in the western area of Sancerre. Like much of Sancerre, this is limestone country, and Les Amoureuses is a blend of three different parcels with heavier clay topsoil than any other parcels within his collection. The name, Les Amoureuses, translated from French as “the lovers,” and was given to the wine because of how the rich clay topsoil clings to the boots when the soil is even only slightly wet. As it turns out, most wines from other areas with the same name, like the famous and rare Chambolle Musigny premier cru, had the same concept in mind. The clay rich soil makes Les Amoureuses a freight train of Sauvignon Blanc, and the most powerful and generous wine within François’ range of white Sancerre—it’s a crowd pleaser. It’s fermented in stainless steel vats and aged in a large, twenty-liter old tronconic (vertical and slightly tapered at the top) French oak vat. These days, more and more of Crochet’s Sancerres are aged in these, but Les Amoureuses was the first he tried with them, because wines rendered from heavy clay soils generally benefit from the sculpting effect of wood and its affinity for extremely slow microoxygenation to soften what may otherwise be an overabundance of unbridled energy.