Vincent Pinard: haute-couture Sancerre

The roots of the Pinard family – based in the village of Bué, which lies just over 3km as the bird flies from the town of Sancerre – stretch back over 20 generations to the time of the reign of Henri IV (1553-1610), the first Bourbon king of France.

The first documented mention of their wine-production activities, however, dates from modern times, at the start of the 20^th century, referring to Armand Pinard’s ownership of three hectares devoted to polyculture farming but including vine holdings.

Scroll down for 12 Vincent Pinard Sancerre tasting notes and scores

In 1945, Charles Pinard took the reins at the estate in the aftermath of World War II during which the vineyard had greatly suffered.

By the 1960s, he had restored the viability of the family’s wine production through his perseverance, selling and shipping his wines in barrel to Paris.

His legacy continued under the determined impetus of Vincent Pinard and his wife Colette, who were able to expand the family domain after buying the vineyards belonging to cousins in the 1980s and attain its present-day dimension of nearly 17 hectares, while also implementing a renewed style of wine that has become a benchmark for the whole region.

Hands-on viticulture

Theirs is a distinctive style that is born of a love for work in the vineyard that takes precedence over that carried out in the cellar.

Production today is in the hands of Vincent’s two sons, Clément and Florent, heralds of the family philosophy that the essence of fine wine derives from meticulous viticulture using precise skills of a kind that are comparable to those of haute-couture fashion production.

As Clément puts it, ‘85% of the wine is made in the vineyard, with the remaining work in the cellar based on observation and simple logic’.

Their way of working the soil is organic, even biodynamic, in its orientation but the Pinards do not wish to seek certification.

Yields are controlled using the Poussard method of pruning, an adaptation of the classic Guyot pruning approach but using two arms in a way to achieve a better balance of the vine through the unimpeded flow of sap. This helps to avoid the formation of deadwood, so susceptible to the grapevine trunk disease known as Esca, which has become widespread in French vineyards, including those of Sancerre.

‘We are carefully examining the benefits of using the method of curettage, which involves cutting out any rotten wood, as a way to combat Esca.’ It goes without saying that insecticides, weed killers, and anti-rot treatments have not been used here for a long while. 

Hands-off winemaking

As for their work in the cellar, Clément believes that keen observation of the process is essential to successful winemaking.

‘We are not very interventionist. It all comes down to making the right choice of the grapes to use. If the fruit is healthy, there is no need to use any artifices for the winemaking.’

For the white wines, Clément Pinard and his brother use indigenous yeasts and are keen on reducing the amount of sulphites, while also favouring barrel ageing using conic fermentation vats or the 600-litre format known as demi-muid. Their avowed goal is to ‘work with wood while avoiding its aromatic influence’.

For the reds, they use whole bunches for their special bottling named Vendanges Entières, but destemming is the rule for the others, and they all age in 228-litre Burgundy barrels. The goal, according to Clément, is for the consumer ‘to taste the work of the wine-grower more than that of the cooper.’ 

‘We are craftsmen, and our handiwork is fundamental to our production,’ he asserts. This approach is apparent in the wines.

Vintage after vintage, the Pinard wines have gained in precision, with very pure, racy acidity, and are eminently expressive of the limestone terroirs of Sancerre.

Two-thirds of the 17ha estate are planted to Sauvignon Blanc, the remainder to Pinot Noir. ‘We have a wide variety of soils in Sancerre,’ remarks Clément, and the estate offers 12 different cuvées produced from some 40 plots.

The type of soil – be it ‘Kimmeridgian or Oxfordian limestone, a bit of clay and a very hilly vineyard’ – will influence the character of each cuvée. The Florès cuvée provides an exemplary introduction to the Pinard style, combining rigour and vivacity, while Grand Chemarin is elegantly exotic but just as tightly wound.

Chêne Marchand has all the strength and power of its magnificent terroir while the most recent of all the cuvées, named Le Château, merits cellaring for it to reveal its full complexity.

Two outstanding vintages

Our tasting included wines from two recent vintages, both outstanding for the Loire Valley, 2018 and 2019.

2018

This was a solar, or sun-drenched, vintage, but the wines, according to Clément, ‘do not lack energy’.

After a very dry, sunny summer, the harvested grapes were impeccably ripe and healthy. 2019 was almost identical to 2018 during the growing season, but the wines have ‘more texture’ and more freshness than those from 2018.

2019

Clément confesses to having a soft spot for the 2019s, as the wines have sharper contours.

Although this vintage was overall less homogeneous throughout the Loire, the best wines have the structure to stay the distance, and in particular those made with grapes benefiting from biodynamic farming have remarkable acidity that provides a welcome balance to their innate power and density.

The wines are imported into the UK by Justerini & Brooks and into the US by Langdon Shiverick Imports.

See the tasting notes and scores for 12 Vincent Pinard Sancerre 2018 & 2019 wines

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