SÉBASTIEN RIFFAULT
France, Sancerre

Sébastien Riffault is the only 100% natural winemaker in Sancerre. The domaine is located in Sury-en-Vaux where he is working a two hectare vineyard. The hills overview the village of Sancerre and the Loire river. He works the soil with horse, using biodynamic viticulture and no chemistry. He vinifies his wines at his father Etienne's winery. The identity of his juices is ever so natural and the wine is therefore not comparable to Sauvignon's standardized taste. The wines are neither glued nor filtered, often cloudy with brilliant minerality. One of the reasons why Riffaults wines are different from the classic Sancerre is that he picks the grapes in mid-October when the grapes start to have botrytis. Thats how the winemakers in Sancerre used to do in the past. The risk of gray rot increases and that may be why everyone else harvest early but Sébastien thinks the biodynamic viticulture helps to avoid it because it keeps the vineyard in balance.