Guillaume Sorbe, the winemaker behind Domaine Les Poëte, is committed to doing things his own way. Although he comes from a family of winemakers in the Cher region of the Loire Valley, Guillaume left home first becoming a chef and then a sommelier, learning the wine trade from new perspectives. Upon returning home in 2007, he decided to stay and launch his own project as a winemaker. Starting from scratch and slowly acquiring 28 distinct plots throughout the Loire, Domaine Les Poëte maintains its roots in the terroir and culture of the Cher Valley. As Guillaume continues to harvest these vineyards parcel by parcel, his approach to winemaking is unified under one guiding principle: that in winemaking, less is more.

With this ethos in mind, Domaine Les Poëte is a unique project that is first and foremost dedicated to crafting quality wines by preserving the innate properties of a terroir that has long produced some of the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world. For Guillaume, this begins with the soil – mostly clay-limestone mixed with perruches, yielding wines with a mineral-dense, “flinty” character. Across his vineyards, Guillaume has established a tailored approach to regenerative farming that relies on plant and animal diversity to produce nutrient dense soil, implementing various biodynamic treatments. In addition to grapes, Guillaume farms a range of vegetation and animals, including chickens and sheep, the waste from which he uses as fertilizer.

In the cellar, his approach is equally considered and comprehensive. Guillaume uses a direct press method and cold settling, before carrying out fermentation using indigenous yeasts in large neutral barrels for all his Sauvignon Blanc cuvées. Plots are vinified separately and blended, as needed, only towards the end of elevage to preserve their terroir-driven nuances. Guillaume prefers a long elevage in used barrel on the fine lees, while still maintaining the purity of the fruit – the time in barrel ranges from 9-months up to 18-months, with extended time spent in bottle for certain cuvées. His wines are produced without fining, filtering and low use of sulfites, and the results are wines that are dense and structured, while being elegant, aromatic and lively.