In 1982, Didier Dagueneau returned to Saint-Andelain and refused to join the family domaine, setting out instead to make, as he put it, “the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world.” A former professional racer of both dog-sleds and motorcycle sidecars, he became the most divisive and most decorated figure in the Pouilly-Fumé appellation before his untimely 2008 death in an ultralight plane crash. His son Louis-Benjamin, then 26, took the reins alongside his sister Charlotte, and the wines have only sharpened. The domaine farms roughly 12 hectares in Pouilly across silex and clay, a parcel of Monts Damnés in Sancerre, and three hectares in Jurançon at the foot of the Pyrénées. Yields are kept at 75% of neighboring estates and vinified parcel-by-parcel; fermentations rely on indigenous yeasts; aging happens in cigar-shaped barrels and demi-muids designed for lees contact without aromatic distortion. Since 2017, in protest of an appellation rejection, the wines have been bottled as Vin de France.

The Babylone project started in 2002, when Didier discovered a natural amphitheater of terraced vines at Aubertin facing the Pyrénées and was reminded of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The collaboration with Guy Pautrat produces petit manseng of unusual tension for Jurançon, harvested by successive passes and fermented in new oak — demi-muids and cigares — without chaptalization. The Moëlleux is the original cuvée, the one Didier set out to make in 2002, typically landing near 125 grams of residual sugar while remaining remarkably light on its feet.

The 2018 is golden, plush, and lifted. Crystallized pineapple, mango, ripe apricot, and orange marmalade lead the way, threaded with honey, ginger, and toasted hazelnut from oak aging. The mid-palate is unctuous but the acid line keeps everything moving. The finish carries saline grip and dried chamomile alongside the candied fruit. Built for foie gras, blue cheese, or simply a long evening, plus a future of twenty-five or thirty years of age potential from bottling.