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The most powerful and complex wine from Boulay's lineup, with an incredible intensity of fruit and a strong mineral core. This rare bottling comes from just 0.4 hectares of 70-year-old vines in the Comtesse lieu-dit at the chalky epicentre of Les Monts-Damnés. For hundreds of years or more, locals have considered this vineyard the finest single terroir of Chavignol. According to Thibaut Boulay, the first mention of the ‘Montdampni’ appeared in documents held by the Abbaye de Saint-Satur in 1252. In his Le Vignoble de Chavignol, Thibaut then reminds us that at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878, the Comtesse lieu-dit was already considered a true star of the Sancerrois, its wines served on the most renowned tables of northern France. As another marker of its historical reverence, the Comtesse parcel was only grafted after 1945; before that, it remained the last ungrafted white vineyard in France, as La Romanée-Conti was for red grapes. The soil composition is pure Kimmeridgian limestone and consists of a miserly 30 to 40 centimeter layer of topsoil over solid limestone bedrock. This brings intense minerality and warmth as the rocky soil absorbs the sun’s heat and re-radiates it at night. Yet it is also a cooler, less exposed place, so it always produces fully ripe fruit and intense freshness while also finer and more restrained than a typical Monts-Damnés—hence, the historical fame.

Tasting Note: Cut and clarity allied with perfectly ripe fruit intensity, that is Cometesse from Les Montes-Damnes. Another warmer growing season  season has done nothing to round this wine's razor-edge precision. Marked by the soil rather than the sun, this wine incorporates the greatest elements of Chavignol's top terroir. A seductive texture and nectarine-like fruit, yet also thoroughbred restraint, great line, mineral clarity, and unbelievable  chalky length. A true Sancerre Grand Cru

Variety: Sauvignon Blanc

Vineyard: From from just 0.4 hectares of 70-year-old vines in the Comtesse lieu-dit at the chalky epicentre of Les Monts-Damnés.

Orientation: south facing slope

Soil: Kimmeridgean limestone and clay or "terre blanche" (similar to the soils of Chablis)

Viticulture: Gerard works the soils manually, the vines are farmed using organic methods and all grapes are harvested by hand.

Vinification: Natural yeast fermentation in 300L barrels (no new wood).

Aging: Aged on the lees in a combination of barrel (300L, no new wood) and tank then bottled unfiltered