2014 Gerard Boulay "La Comtesse" Sancerre

“The 2014 La Comtesse, which hails from a plot of fifty year-old vines in the Monts Damnés, is stunning, delivering a very pure and complex bouquet of lime, gooseberry, complex, chalky minerality, citrus peel, loads of botanicals and a topnote of white flowers. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with superb refinement and precision, fine acidity and great length and grip on the impeccably balanced finish. This is entirely fermented and raised in three hundred liter, older casks, and this gives the wine a bit more early accessibility in comparison to wines such as the Clos de Beaujeu, but it has fine structural integrity underneath its veneer of accessibility and should age every bit as long as the La Côte.” (09/2015)

“From 45-year-old vines in a south-facing, 0.4-hectare plot inside the prestigious Monts Damnés, the 2014 Sancerre Comtesse is a picture-book Sancerre. Pure and subtle on the lovely clear, fresh and aromatic but also mineral nose, it indicates ripe white and yellow fruits perfectly intertwined with crushed limestone, thyme and elderberry flavors. Full-bodied yet pure, highly elegant and very complex on the palate, this is a lean yet dense and perfectly balanced Mont-Damnés with a long and persistent, beautifully aromatic, as well as salty finish. Still young and with further potential, but you can already enjoy La Comtesse with great pleasure. (SR)” (10/2016)

“Surely the most exalted of Gérard’s wines, this is sourced from a 0.4-hectare parcel of vines near the foot of Le Monts Damnés. It has a very pale straw hue, which heralds a very energetic nose, mineral and saline, with a pithy-bitter energy. This character comes across on the palate, which is bright and fresh, with peach skin and also a little tinge of apricot jam, communicating something of the ripeness of the fruit. To balance this it has a really pithy energy and a fresh acid bite, both of which contribute to the wine’s energy and character, the whole package really charged and pure. This is super wine, but feels very primary and withdrawn, and really needs more time in the cellar to come together. 18/20 points” (08/2016)