Large Format from a
Larger Than Life Personality
2007 Dagueneau Silex MAGS
There's not much that needs to be said here: Dagueneau was an artist of the Sauvignon Blanc grape, of Pouilly-Fumé, of white winemaking in general.
Dagueneau's name is mentioned in the same breath as people like Roulot, Raveneau and Lafon.
The wines are able to capture intense concentration and texture and yet, somehow remain vibrant, animated by a luminous clarity and a rigorous detail.
There are so few magnums of what's considered Dagueneau's Grand Cru, his Silex bottling, that we'll keep this brief.
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Magnums of Dagueneau are extremely rare. However, mags of 2007 Silex are particularly special. It's Dageaneau's top wine and the last vintage that Didier saw from vineyard to bottle before his untimely death when an ultralight plane he was operating crashed. While great wines continue to be issued from the domaine, Didier was larger than life, an iconoclastic rebel bent on making the greatest Sauvignon Blanc in the world.
Silex is sourced from a vineyard high up on the hill of St. Andelain in Pouilly-Fumé where there's a significant portion of flinty silex soil and considerably less clay. The result is a wine that's firmer, more structured, with its mineral expression finely etched. It can come across as a touch austere in youth, needing more cellar time to open up - but when it does… wow.
And the 2007 Silex is just beginning to unfold and reveal its layers of citrus (lime, grapefruit, pomelo, etc), fine chalky minerality, floral notes, and red fruits. The spectrum of flavors with delineation that Silex achieves is incredible - it's Exhibit A for the wine's Grand Cru status.
Silex is also the distance runner of Dagueneau's line-up and magnum is the ideal format for long aging - wine aged in magnum is just fresher and purer.
The 2007 vintage in the Loire produced wines with an impressive amount of cut and pristine brightness. On Dagueneau's 2007 Silex specifically, Stephen Tanzer's Josh Raynolds nails it when he writes: "Strikingly deep and pure wine, finishing with strong mineral cut and superb lift and persistence."
Quantities, as mentioned above, are limited. Please give us your maximum order, and we'll do our best.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare
Crush Wine & Spirits
Josh Raynolds: "Greenish yellow. A kaleidoscopic nose combines lime zest, intense minerality, spicecake and white flowers. Wonderfully concentrated yet sharply focused, offering a suave blend of bracing citrus and mineral flavors and outstanding richness Strikingly deep and pure wine, finishing with strong mineral cut and superb lift and persistence."