Joseph Mellot Menetou-Salon 'Clos du Pressoir' 2023 (750ml)

The Mellot family has been growing vines in Sancerre since 1513, when Pierre-Étienne Mellot first planted there, making it one of the oldest wine families in the Loire. In 1882 they also opened the Auberge Mellot in Sancerre, where Claude Monet was once a guest. In 1984 Alexandre Mellot took over the estate. He expanded the vineyards, modernized the winery and carried the name abroad. Since his death in 2005 the house has been led by Catherine Corbeau-Mellot, who joined the family business in 1987. Menetou-Salon sits just southwest of Sancerre, between the vineyards of the Sancerrois and the cathedral city of Bourges. It shares Sancerre’s Kimmeridgian calcareous marl, the fossil-rich limestone also found under Chablis, which gives Sauvignon Blanc its chalky precision. Le Clos du Pressoir is a single two-hectare parcel of twenty-year-old Sauvignon Blanc on that marl, farmed with mechanical tilling in place of herbicides. The juice is pressed gently, settled cold, fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel, and aged on its fine lees in tank with no oak, so the site comes through cleanly. 2023 was a demanding year in the Centre-Loire. A wet, mild spring and humid early summer kept growers busy fighting mildew, but late heat brought healthy, ripe grapes in by mid-September, with pure, well-balanced juice and generous yields. The result is a crisp, mineral bottle that puts a five-century Sancerre family’s craft to work on a single parcel of its quieter neighbor.