2022 Claude Riffault "Les Boucauds" Sancerre Blanc

(92-94) Points from Vinous: "The 2022 Les Boucauds sashays around the mouth. It is rich and rounded, possibly due to the deep clays on this clay limestone with a ripe, almost tropical aromatic profile offering melon, pear and pineapple alongside white flowers. A rather satisfying style that remains in barrel and will be blended in the summer of 2023. Claude Riffault is a shining star in Sancerre, producing suave, texturally intriguing, seemingly effortless wines. Having joined the family business in 2001 and been handed the keys to the estate in 2015, Stéphane Riffault has implemented changes that have refined the wines, starting with the move to hand harvesting in 2008. In 2013, the family moved its 15 hectares to organics, achieving certification in 2016, which led to biodynamic conversion, starting in 2018 (2021 was the first fully biodynamic harvest). All the white wines (it does have 2ha of Pinot Noir) are fermented and aged in large wood, malolactic fermentation is always avoided, and even its largest production wine – Les Boucauds – spends ten months on lees, rising to 14 months for its single vineyards like Les Chasseignes, Les Denisottes and Les Chailloux, creating richly textured, lightly autolytic expressions...Every single cuvée, from its ‘entry-level’ Sancerre Blanc upwards (known as Mosaïque Calcaire from the 2022 vintage), would happily sit in my glass." (June 2023)