2024 Hippolyte Reverdy, Sancerre Blanc, Loire Valley, France.
One of my favorite Loire wines, Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre never fails to meet the moment and this 2024 Blanc really hit the bullseye with brilliant freshness, purity, terroir driven character and complexity with its crisp steely palate. Served with a varity of starter courses and a perfect warm evening this vintage of Hippolyte Reverdy perfectly satified the needs of the table with vivid gooseberry, grapefruit, lemon/lime, wild tangy peach and melon fruits, along with mineral, wet stone, a light herbacious edge and delicate lime blossom notes. Zingy, chalky and tartly dry, this was exactly what I wanted and there was no doubt where this fine effort was from. While you can pay lots more for Sancerre, there’s not many that can compare to Hippolyte Reverdy for quality and value, it is a wine that I always recommend. The domaine’s rare Sancerre Rosé, 100% Pinot Noir, and the Rouge, also 100% Pinot Noir are also special treats at Hippolyte Reverdy and though tough to find and allocatted, they are well worth the chase, as is this wine that comes off mature, 30 year old vines set on the legenday clay and chalky Kimmeridgian Limestone soils that gives it its soulful, old world and authentic character.
Julie Guiard’s Hippolyte Reverdy is one of Sancerre’s most prized and consistant producers and I first started enjoying their wines in the early 2000s, when they became my go to Sancerre, with the Rosé, Rouge and especially the classic Sauvignon Blanc always impressing me. The Reverdy family is a big name in the Loire Valley and in paricular in the Sancerre region and this estate started gaining notarity in the early 1970s and really took over with the arrival of importer Kermit Lynch in the 1980s, he really made this domaine a must have Sancerre with Michel Reverdy producing lovely traditional wines. The family had a sad tragic loss of Michel’s dad and two brothers, but he and his mom have endured and continued to turn out top notch efforts, and this 2024 version shows they are not slwing down in any way. For the Sancerre Blanc, 100% Sauvignon Blanc, the grapes are gently pressed by pneumatic press immediately following the harvest and the must settles for 36 hours before the clear juice is racked and fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel cuves. Kermit says the wine rests on its lees for 2-3 months, getting stirred 3 or 4 times to keep lees suspended throughout the liquid and then bottled, quickly to preserve freshness, in the Spring. It is great to re-visit the Hippolyte Reverdy label again and get my Sancerre fix!
($36 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive