Loire

Domaine François Cotat

Location

Chavignol
Agriculture

Sustainable farming
Area

4.9 ha
Wines

White, Red

François Cotat produces some of the most singular Sauvignon Blanc in the world. From a modest cellar in the village of Chavignol, he crafts wines that are as much magic as they are winemaking — atypical, arrestingly complex, and built to age for decades.

The Cotat family has been tending Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir on the legendary slopes of the Monts Damnés since the end of World War II. In the 1990s, brothers Paul and Francis Cotat passed the family estate on to their sons — François and Pascal — giving rise to two separates but kindred domaines.

Today, François works from Chavignol while his cousin Pascal operates from Sancerre, yet both share a common heritage: old-vine Sauvignon Blanc grown in Chavignol’s most coveted vineyards.

Nestled in the western reaches of the Sancerre appellation, the village of Chavignol sits atop a chalk plateau, the same ancient Kimmeridgian vein that runs through Chablis, with clay and limestone soils the locals call terres blanches. The finest vineyards, Monts Damnés, Grande Côte and Les Culs de Beaujeu, cling to dramatically steep hillsides with barely any topsoil, pushing vines to their limits and concentrating everything into the fruit.

Cotat harvests exclusively by hand and deliberately late, as extreme ripeness is central to the weight, texture and complexity that define his wines.

While not formally certified organic, his approach follows organic principles in every meaningful way, no pesticides in the vineyard, only indigenous yeasts in the cellar, and racking guided by the lunar cycle.

Wines are fermented in older demi-muids and aged in larger tonneaux. Every wine leaves the cellar unfined and unfiltered.