Blanc Etc... 2019 I Dagueneau

SUPER RARE:

Blanc Etc is a biodynamic white wine made by Benjamin Dagueneau  with Sauvignon Blanc in the AOC Pouilly Fumé, in the Loire (France). 
 
Dagueneau is one of the most important figures in the production of white wines in Pouilly Fumé. Located on the right bank of the Loire, he was a wine purist who chose to switch to biodynamic and minimal intervention methods on his 11 hectares. When he died in 2008, his son Louis Benjamin Dagueneau continued the legacy of making some of the finest white wines in the Loire and the world.
 
Dagueneau Blanc Etc comes from four different vineyards planted with 15-20 year old vines on flinty clay and limestone soils. They are cultivated using biodynamic agriculture with maximum respect for nature and very low yields. When the grapes reach optimum ripeness, they are manually harvested. 
 
In the winery, Dagueneu Blanc Etc grapes are destemmed and gently pressed, then the resulting must ferments spontaneously with native yeasts. Finally the wine is aged on lees in foudres for 12 months.
 
Although Didier Dagueneu Blanc Etc is not one of Dagueneau’s flagship wines, it is still very pleasant. Fresh, rich and, above all, very mineral.

This is rightly considered one of Dagueneau’s superstars - although in truth, all his wines are. It comes from a densely planted, 30-year-old vineyard in Saint-Laurent-l’Abbaye called La Folie (the madness). It’s hidden between two parcels of woodland about five kilometres north of Saint-Andelain. The vineyard is named for the local farmers, who thought Didier Dagueneau was mad when he purchased the land. It was not a vineyard at the time and full of huge boulders—back then it was not even registered as part of the Pouilly-Fumé AOC.

It turns out that Didier had done his homework; not only was La Folie a historical Pouilly vineyard, but its vein of pure flint and Ludian silica clay (chaille roulées) and its gently sloping south/south-east exposure, made it potentially one of Pouilly’s finest. This site not only ended up being the birthplace of the Pur Sang cuvée, but was also the source of the legendary, ultra-rare Astéroïde cuvée, which was made from 18 rows of uncrafted vines (that have finally succumbed to phylloxera).