Domaine Jonathan Didier Pabiot

The Pabiots have made good, classic Pouilly-Fumé for generations but this 21-hectare domaine, just north of Pouilly-sur-Loire, got a shot in the arm in 2005 when a twenty-something Jonathan Pabiot began working here full-time alongside his father Didier.

Inspired by winemakers including Sancerre’s Stéphane Riffault, Jonathan would oversee biodynamic conversion (with certification in 2016) and introduce a range of single-parcel wines that express the nuances in terroir across the estate. In his superb book, The New French Wine, Jon Bonné cites Pabiot as an outlier in Pouilly-Fumé: ‘Jonathan Pabiot sees what most us can’t in Pouilly-Fumé: a compelling appellation with distinctive soils and the ability to show itself with specificity and depth.’

Like Riffault, Jonathan uses ambient yeast, extensive lees stirring and an array of maturation vessels, notably concrete and neutral 500L barrels, to craft wines of tremendous complexity, energy and texture. Today, Domaine Jonathan Pabiot, as it has been re-christened, produces no fewer than five separate cuvées of Pouilly-Fumé.