Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc from 3 hectares of pure flint at Château de l'Estang, at the foot of the town.
Château de l'Estang sits at the foot of the town of Sancerre and is recorded from 1573. Its 3 hectares of AOC Sancerre are all Sauvignon Blanc, planted on 100% silex, or flint. Sancerre has three classic soils: terres blanches (Kimmeridgian marl), caillottes (limestone) and silex, flinty clay found mostly on the eastern slopes nearest the Loire.
The vines are worked by hand, with sheep grazing and beehives among them, and the wine goes into lightweight recycled bottles. The estate is committed to organic farming and was the first independent wine estate labelled Bas Carbone by ADEME.
Rémy Graillot bought the estate in 2013 and restored its dovecote and orangery as the winery where both cuvées are made.
Production is about 25,000 bottles a year, about 1,500 of them L'Illustre Voyageur. That cuvée takes the nickname of Jean-Guillaume Hyde de Neuville, a friend of Chateaubriand who lived at the château in the 19th century.