Pascal Jolivet, 2021 Update
Pascal Jolivet is descended from good winemaking stock; ancestors on his father’s side ran the cellars at Château de Tracy, in Pouilly-Fumé, while his mother’s family had a long history as restaurateurs in Sancerre. Despite this the family owned no vineyards, so when Pascal set up shop in the region in the 1980s it was as a négociant, using the name Les Grands Vins du Val de Loire. With the passing of time, however, Pascal began acquiring vineyards, so much so that by 1990 his domaine was large enough to warrant the construction of cellars to accommodate his extensive harvest.
Today Pascal has about 120 hectares of vineyards, all of which he and his family own. Much of the domaine (at the time of writing, about 93 of those 120 hectares) are managed organically, in partnership with a local vigneron named Benoit Dauny whose family have been practising organic viticulture in the region for decades. Pascal’s teaming up with Dauny was a major landmark in the history of the domaine; another was the arrival of his oenologist, Valentina Buoso, in 2013. She continues to make the wines here today.
The Wines
In this tasting I checked out five wines from Pascal Jolivet, beginning with two from the latest vintage, 2020. The 2020 Sancerre represents one-third of the domaine’s production, Pascal having reduced the number of single-vineyard wines he makes in order to improve quality and increase volume in this cuvée. It is an attractive wine in the typical entry-level style, largely drawn from caillottes, with floral fruit and a minty note that I have found in a number of whites in this vintage already (from the Nantais all the way up to the Central Vineyards). The 2020 Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, renamed in this vintage (previously Pascal used the more commonplace Pouilly-Fumé, but Blanc Fumé de Pouilly is an alternative permitted by appellation regulations) shows rather more energy and definition and would certainly be my preference here.
