Corney & Barrow 

Sancerre’s Domaine Tissier is a small, family-owned wine estate in Chavignol, one of the greatest wine villages within the Sancerre district. Founded in 1945, the Domaine is run today by Roland Tissier’s grandchildren, viticulturalist Rodolphe and winemaker Florent. Domaine Tissier is what the wine world might call ‘a gem’: a quality-minded estate with just ten hectares of prime south-facing vineyard slopes, comprising prized chalk-clay and ‘silex’ (flint) soils. With such fine credentials, it is no surprise that the Tissier brothers give their privileged terroir so much focus. Florent asserts: ‘it’s impossible to put terroir into wine, but easy to knock it out’, so the Tissiers aim for balanced, healthy vines, eschewing chemicals likely to compromise the wines’ natural expression. Given the floral delicacy and mineral depth of their Sancerres, Domaine Tissier’s approach would seem spot on!

Photo: Rodolphe and Florent Tissier