Sancerre-Les-Clacaires-Lucien-Crochet-Loire-France

Producer: Lucien Crochet’s great-grandfather married into the Picard family, who had been winegrowers in Sancerre since 1765, and thus laid the foundations of Domaine Lucien Crochet.

The estate now owns thirty-one hectares of vineyards planted in various parts of four communes in the Sancerre appellation, including the largest single holding of vineyard property in Bué.

Hand-harvesting – a rarity in Sancerre – and the use of indigenous yeasts give particularly nuanced, elegant wines.

MORE: Both of my grandfathers, André Crochet and Lucien Picard, were winegrowers. In fact, in the early 1950s, Lucien Picard was one of the pioneers of bottling Sancerre wines in the region to be able to sell them in Paris. My father, Lucien Crochet, merged the two estates together.

He developed relationships with the finest restaurants in Paris and it was only natural for the export markets to follow. Today, my wife Laurence, who is also the daughter of a Sancerre grower, and I oversee the estate while adding our own approach and sensitivity.