Domaine Francois Cotat Sancerre Cuvee Paul 2018

Cuvée Paul is the rarest, most exceptional bottling in the entire Cotat range — and its name is a direct tribute. Paul Cotat was the legendary patriarch who ran the family domaine jointly with his brother for decades before retiring in the early 1990s, passing the reins to his son François, who has kept the same old-school, uncompromising practices alive ever since. Rather than coming from a single vineyard, Cuvée Paul is assembled only in the very best vintages, drawn from whichever single barrel across François's three iconic sites — Monts Damnés, Culs de Beaujeu, and Grande Côte — is identified each year as the richest, slowest to ferment, and possessing the greatest ageing potential. Some years it leans toward one site over another (2018, for instance, was dominated by Monts Damnés); other years, none of the barrels quite meet the bar and no Cuvée Paul is made at all. Production is famously tiny, and the wine is regarded as one of the most sought-after and expensive Sauvignon Blancs in the world.

The result is a genuine tour de force: a lively, layered wine ranging from bright citrus through to exotic tropical fruit, underscored by a pulsing current of cardamom and anise, all carried on the same stony, mineral-driven backbone that defines every Cotat wine. It's built with extraordinary longevity in mind — collectors have suggested bottles can hold for fifty years or more in the right cellar conditions, still developing new layers of complexity decades after release