Domaine Gueneau
domaine gueneau
A family estate on the steep slopes of Sury-en-Vaux, Chavignol, and Sancerre. Elisa Gueneau farms 35 acres of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir on some of the appellation's most mineral-driven soils.
The Gueneau family has been in Sancerre longer than the records go back — farming first, then winemaking. Alain Gueneau made it a wine-focused estate in 1970. The family farms the steep hillside plots surrounding three villages: Sury-en-Vaux, Chavignol, and Sancerre itself.
Elisa Gueneau runs the domaine now, working the same 35 acres her father built. The estate is small enough that she knows every parcel intimately, and the work shows it. Her focus is on the vines — observing the plots through the seasons, managing the soil by hand, letting the terroir do what it has always done here.
The portfolio is split between Sauvignon Blanc (75% of production) and Pinot Noir.
Farming and Winemaking
Elisa farms sustainably. Cover crops grow between the vine rows; soil around the base of each vine is worked by hand. The goal is balance — giving the vines what they need without overriding what the land already provides.
The Chavignolet rosé is aged six months in stainless steel, bottled at the estate. Production is very limited.
Vineyard: Chavignolet (Caillottes)
The Chavignolet parcel sits on caillottes — decomposed limestone broken down into loose pebbles, a soil type the locals also call griottes. Vines here are 35 years old. Elevation is 740 feet. Where the estate's terres blanches (calcareous clay) give weight and structure to the whites, caillottes produces something lighter and more precise. Only 20% of the vineyard, including Chavignolet, is caillottes.
