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 2022 is drive and structure ahead of aromatics, a long line of tension running the length of the palate. Lemon zest, white peach, crushed stone, and a struck-match flint note give the nose its lift; the palate enters with clay-driven flesh and tightens as it moves, the finish saline, electric, and very long. This is a wine to put away, ideally for a decade from vintage, with patience rewarded in spades.