Domaine Laporte, 2015 Update
Where do you go to experience the interplay between flint and Sauvignon Blanc in Sancerre? Well, there are many domaines where flint plays a part in the portfolio, often a single cuvée alongside perhaps half a dozen from various combinations or types of limestone, from Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian, from caillottes to terres blanches. The flint cuvée often isn’t that hard to spot; if it isn’t called Silex (meaning flint) then it is not unusual to find the name is some play on that word, with Exils from François Crochet and X-elis from Gitton Père being particular favourites of mine.
Few domaines feature flint ahead of limestone, but one that does is Domaine Laporte. An important domaine owned and run by the Laporte family for 130 years, it was sold to the Bourgeois family (of Henri Bourgeois) in 1986, and for the past couple of decades it has been under the ultimate control of Jean-Marie Bourgeois. Although, as a sizeable domaine in its own right, it is too large to be run ‘on the side’ along with all the other Bourgeois commitments and although Jean-Marie has overarching responsibility there is a full and independent team running this vineyard and cellars. The work in the vineyards has been organic since 1990, an impressive track record.
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