2022 Ronsard La Pleiade Sancerre 750 ml

Sancerre labels leave a lot unsaid. Unlike Burgundy, which is classified down to the vine, there’s no official Sancerre vineyard hierarchy to tell you where your bottle stands.

But there’s little argument: Sancerre’s best wines come from the very top vineyards in Chavignol, Bué, Amigny, and Verdigny: limestone-rich sites like Les Monts Damnés, with its 45° slopes, which was once called Sancerre’s “unofficial top cru” in Decanter. Or Chêne Marchand, which spawns single-vineyard wines that trade for over $50.

La Pléiade from Ronsard Selection contains fruit from both of these prized sites. Grown in a modern-day classic vintage, crafted mainly for the US market by a deeply connected couple with roots in the Loire Valley, it hails from a constellation of top vineyards in Bué, Chavignol, and Sancerre. Boasting floral, grapefruity aromas, superb concentration, and fantastic energy, it’s a rock-solid Sancerre. 

The town of Bué—not far from Daniel Chotard (A Wine Access member-favorite from Kermit Lynch) and Jean-Max Roger, another great name in Sancerre—is home to Domaine Ronsard. The domaine and this cuvée take their names from a small band of 16th-century French renaissance poets, led by Pierre de Ronsard, who were likened to the Pleiades constellation. Inspired by those shining literary lights, Domaine Ronsard blends their Sancerre from superstar vineyards, but maintains a shockingly salt-of-the-earth price. 

In 2022, the winery was blessed with a modern-day classic vintage. After several years of enduring seemingly everything that mother nature could throw at Sancerre—frost, rain, you name it—the sun finally shone in 2022. The result is this wine, which shows off beautifully seductive fruit to go with Sancerre’s trademark limestone-and-flint minerality.