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.

Silex comes from a single parcel high on the Saint-Andelain hill, planted on flint mixed with a thin layer of clay over very old vines. Didier added it to the lineup in 1985 and considered the site the greatest in the appellation; the wine tends to be austere on release and to demand more time than any other cuvée in the range, repaying it with the smoky mineral signature for which Pouilly-Fumé took its name. 

The 2020 is the warmer, more open register of the vintage at its sleekest. Yellow grapefruit, white peach, Granny Smith apple, candied lemon, and gunflint move through a palate that is taut and crystalline at the core, broadened by a leesy texture that fills out the mid-palate without softening the line. The finish carries iodine, smoke, and a salivating saline drive. Drinking well now, but easily ready for two decades of post-bottling evolution.