Domaine du Carrou
Appellation: Sancerre, Loire Valley
Proprietor : Dominique Roger
Year Founded: 1950
Size: 11.3 hectares
Farming Practice: Sustainable
Fruits of Labor and Stones
Thirty-five years ago, if you found yourself driving to the crest of Bué, you’d have seen it. A desolate patch off Le Chemin de Marloup leaned to the northeast and the harsh winds that rake across Sancerre. Vines covered the surrounding hills, every hectare spoken for, each quarter-hectare rarely sold. And yet, one vigneron had the audacity to take on this unforgiving slope.
Dominique Roger, they said, had bought the land. The village watched, lawn chairs in tow, as if witnessing the slow unraveling of an inevitable failure.
And failure, at first, seemed the logical end. After two months of labor that redefined toil, Roger stood and watched as one of the appellation’s most violent expressions ripped his work from the ground. With saplings torn and roots exposed, the storm had given the baby vines to the hill. But Roger wasn’t finished. The next year, he returned, and this time, the Pinot Noir clung to the brown, calcareous soil, as if it had always belonged there, as if it had all been a test, and the real work was just beginning. One of the truest rosés of place was born in the following years, a testament to a design so meticulous, bordering on obsession, and the inevitable rewards that such fixation brings.
Roger, with disheveled gray hair and a field tan, seems as much a fixture of his 11-hectare domaine as the vines themselves. Living among them, he adheres to a philosophy of minimal intervention and rigorous disbudding that ensures photosynthesis and much-needed ventilation. Each cluster, brought to ripeness with precision, is hand-harvested. “Pas de bon vin sans bons raisins,” he declares, the vigneron’s mantra.
Back in a vaulted cellar off the Place du Carrou in Bué, embedded partly within the limestone hill behind it, the weight of centuries hovers, its origins stretching back to the 18th century. A retrofitted cuverie drives the vinification of seven cuvées—four whites, two reds, and the most labored of all rosés.
The Sancerre Blanc stands as a classically chiseled showcase of the appellation’s four terroirs. Of the 13 plots woven in, more than half of the cuvée draws from the stony, shallower “Griottes” and “Caillottes” soils that add a floral-citrus delicate lift. The smaller portion, picked off clay-limestone, “Terres Blanches”, and even deeper, flint (silex), offers flesh and complexity to the final assemblage. While it’s the backbone of Roger’s white wine production, three partially barrel-aged cuvées, drawn from the finest, mono-terroir sites of the estate, effectuate Domaine du Carrou’s Sauvignon gravity.
Chêne Marchand, a name spoken with reverence, rises on a south-facing hillside just above Bué, its reputation intertwined with the village’s own. On .37 hectares of “Caillottes”—beds of hard, frost-split white stones—yields a wine of grandiose finesse, elegance, power, and an almost austere minerality.
High above the village, the steep, sun-drenched Les Déserts overlooks Bué nestled in the valley below. From the clay-limestone, “Terres Blanches” slopes of this small lieu-dit, a rich and elegant wine emerges with a delicate saline finish, a whisper of the earth it springs from.
La Jouline Blanc is as much a tribute as a creation, honoring Jean-Baptiste Roger, nicknamed “La Jouline”. From a 60-year-old plot rooted in hard, stony, and dry “Caillottes.” The wine brings a concentrated structure, with a bright tang and salty minerality that lingers into a refined and enduring finale.
For the less conspicuous reds, barrels are obtained from three local coopers who source their oak from the surrounding forest. A Sancerre Rouge, culled from three plots spanning 1.6 hectares on “Terres Blanches”, brings a palpable energy, a Pinot Noir infused with mineral intensity that often reflects and makes jealous of the subtle sophistication of the Côte de Beaune.
Then La Jouline Rouge, a total stand-out, asserting its provenance of the unmistakably stony and calcareous “Caillottes” among two separate Bué plots one kilometer apart yet bound by the same geological stratum.
Each visit to Roger feels like a journey through time and a breath of fresh air shared among old friends after many long days on the road. On warm evenings in the couple’s backyard, Dominique and Dany Roger reveal a procession of vintages that stretch across decades with an accompaniment of local charcuterie, Crottin de Chavignol, and green salad. From the whites, suspended in animation with a crisp clarity; to the understated yet complex reds—delightfully fresh as though they were bottled just yesterday. But as great as the Carrou estate is and widely known to be, the humility of its stewards remains all the more refreshing.
Wines:
Varietal/Blend: Sauvignon
Vineyard Area: From 6 hectare of vines, a large portion of which are in Bué, but also Sancerre, Crezancy and Vinon — vines were planted nearly 30 years ago.
Soil: 30 % on “Griottes” – soft limestone from the late Jurassic Oxfordian (150 million years old) – giving fruit and lightness 34 % on “Caillottes” – hard limestone from the late Jurassic Oxfordian (145 million years old) – bringing fruit, structure, finesse, and chalky minerality 21 % on “Terres blanches” – clay-limestone from the late Jurassic Kimmeridgian (140 million years old) – adding complexity, opulence, richness and salinity 15 % on “silex” – flint-rich limestone from the late Jurassic (40 million years old) – adding well-delineated firmness and a flinty minerality.
Elevation: 220 and 300 meters
Exposure: Northwest - southwest
Vinification: Hand-harvested with strict sorting of clusters and disposal of insufficiently ripe grapes before temperature-controlled fermentation for 3 weeks to 1 month with native yeast.
Maturation: 6 to 11 months on the lees in stainless steel depending on the tank. After a gentle filtration, bottling takes place from spring to late summer
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Sauvignon
Vineyard Area: From 1 hectare of vines planted 50 years ago in Bué
Soil: 100% "Caillottes" (hard limestone) from the two oldest parcels of the estate in Bué
Vinification: Manual harvest with strict sorting of clusters or parts of clusters altered or insufficiently ripe, 30% is vinified in medium-aged oak barrels, 70% is vinified in vats at a low temperature, indigenous yeasts and the lees are suspended regularly to feed the wine until spring. Bottling in late spring after light filtration
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Sauvignon
Vineyard Area: Les Déserts is steep, sun-drecnhed vineyard overlooking Bué that borders Chavignol. This cuvée is a selection of about one third of the one-hectare holding— vines were planted in the 1990s.
Soil: Clay-limestone, "Terres Blanches" from the Kimmeridgian geological stage, rich in fossilized seashells
Elevation: 300 meters
Exposure: Southeast-southwest
Vinification: Vinification: Manual harvest with strict sorting of clusters or parts of clusters altered or insufficiently ripe, 20% is vinified in medium-aged oak barrels of a wine, 80% is vinified in vats at a low temperature, indigenous yeasts and the lees are suspended regularly to feed the wine until spring. Bottling takes place in late-spring after a light filtration.
Maturation: 10 months
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Sauvignon
Vineyard Area: From a .37-hectare parcel in Bué's most famous vineyard, called Chêne Marchand — vines were planted in the 1990s.
Soil: 100% "Caillottes" (hard limestone) from Oxfordian geological stage
Elevation: 260 meters
Exposure: South
Vinification: Manual harvest with strict sorting of clusters or parts of clusters altered or insufficiently ripe, 10% is vinified in medium-aged oak barrels of one previous wine and 90% is vinified in stainless steel tanks at a low temperature — indigenous yeasts and the lees are suspended regularly to feed the wine until spring. Bottling in late spring after light filtration
Maturation: 8 to 10 months on the fine lees (10% in barrel and 90% in stainless steel)
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Pinot Noir
Vineyard Area: From three parcels totaling 1.5 hectares mostly in Bué along with bordering terroirs in Sancerre and Crezancy — vines were planted nearly 40 years ago.
Soil: Clay-limestone, "Terres Blanches" soils of a geological layer of very irregular thicknesses of marl interspersed among limestone banks (30-60cm depth)
Elevation: 280 meters
Exposure: West-northwest
Vinification: • Total or partial destemming of the harvest depending on the vintage • Vatting for 3 weeks or more after careful destemming and sorting followed by cold maceration for a week to extract the color • 1.5 weeks of fermentation with gentle intervention wine in the vat: “remontage” pumping the juice up and over the cap or “marc”, “pigeage”punching down the cap, and partial or total “delestage” or removal of the juice from the vat before reintroducing it after the marc has broken up.
Maturation: 12 months in barrels with an average age of 3 years
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Pinot Noir
Vineyard Area: La Jouline Rouge comes from two plots; one from 30 ares (0.75 acres) on “Le Grand Chemarin”, a rightly famed Bué “lieu dit”, and another plot of 41 ares (1 acre) on “Le fait de Chassené” in nearby Crézancy. Total surface area is 0.71 hectares (1.75 acres). Vines were planted 45 years ago.
Soil: 100% caillottes from the Upper Jurassic Oxfordian Secondary (145 to 150 million years old). Very calcareous and very stony soils on two parcels of sublime soil 1 km apart on the same geological stratum.
Elevation: 265 to 280 meters
Exposure: South-east
Vinification: • Total or partial destemming of the harvest depending on the vintage • Vatting for 3 weeks or more after careful destemming and sorting followed by cold maceration for a week to extract the color
Maturation: 12 to 15 months in barrels with an average age of 2 years • Bottling without fining or filtration
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Pinot Noir
Vineyard Area: From a single parcel in Bué with a very steep slope (30%) located at the highest of the appellation area (300 to 350 m) facing east-northeast. This site has a harsh, cool climate that is not well-suited for red wine, but in Dominique’s view, it's a perfect place for rosé, with conditions optimal for achieving racy wines based on white fruit aromatics, freshness, and elegance. Roger planted this 1.2-hectare site in the 1990s.
Soil: Clay-limestone consisting of calcium-rich brown earth above a hard limestone subsoil about 40cm deep.
Elevation: 300-350 meters
Exposure: East-northeast
Vinification: Manual harvest with strict sorting of clusters or parts of clusters altered or insufficiently ripe. Very slow direct pressing of de-stemmed grapes to ensure extraction of color — the same vinification used in "gray" wine according to the traditional Sancerrois method. According to Dominique Roger, the process brings greater finesse to the product compared to saignée. Fermentation lasts 3 weeks.
Maturation: Preservation on fine lees in stainless steel until the end of winter (5 months). Bottling is in the spring.
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