Domaine François Cotat

This Sancerre estate’s origins stretch back to the 1940s, when brothers Francis and Paul Cotat started bottling wine under the Cotat name in the cellar of Chavignol. For many years, the same wines were bottled under two labels (Francis Cotat and Paul Cotat) – as a way to avoid higher taxes. When this loophole was closed by the French government, they decided to retire and pass the estate to their sons, François and Pascal, in 1998. The brothers divided the property and there have, since then, been two Cotat estates.

Pascal Cotat moved to a cellar in the town of Sancerre itself, establishing Domaine Pascal Cotat. François had been working alongside his father and started making wine under his own name in 1987, taking over the original Chavignol cellar for his newfound domaine in 1998.

He works three hectares of vines, largely on steep slopes and “terres blanches”, Kimmeridgian limestone soils – the same vein of rock that runs through Chablis. He makes four single-site Sancerres: Monts Damnés (arguably his most famous), Culs de Beaujeu, Grande Côte and Caillottes (the last from more pebbly soils on lower slopes). While most of the vineyards are in Chavignol, La Grande Côte is in nearby Amigny. The Caillottes vineyard was a later purchase, not part of the original family estate, and was bottled as Sancerre Jeunes Vignes up to and including the 2007 vintage, with the vineyard name used from 2008, one the vines were deemed old enough.

François also has half a hectare of Pinot Noir (with a sprinkling of Gamay co-planted in the vineyard), from which he produces a prized rosé, and even rarer red, both bearing “Chavignol” on the label. The red only goes through partial malolactic fermentation and is therefore always bottled as Vin de France, while the rosé is sometimes bottled as Sancerre Rosé, but doesn’t always meet the appellation criteria.

This is a common thread for the wines, and the whites sometimes don’t pass muster with the INAO and have to be declassified to Vin de France, as was the case in 2002, for example. In certain vintages, he also produces Cuvée Paul – a single barrel of Sauvignon Blanc chosen for its particular richness and ageing potential, often bottled with some residual sugar.

The vines are generally old, with many over 50 years old. He farms sustainably, although is not organic, feeling it isn’t practical in the humidity of the Loire. Working with low yields and picking late for maximum ripeness is key to the Cotat style. In the winery, there is minimal intervention, with the wines all fermented with native yeast and aged in old demi muid (around eight months for the whites), with racking taking place in accordance with the lunar cycle, and the wines bottled unfiltered. He uses sulphur, wanting the wines to age, and – unusually perhaps for his general approach – will chaptalize if needed (although this is rare today with climate change).

The resulting wines are site-expressive, round and rich with deep mineral undertones and higher alcohol levels than most Sancerre. The wines are made in tiny volumes, with circa 30,000 bottles produced a year.