Domaine Thomas & Fils Sancerre La Crele 2004

The Thomas family has been growing grapes and making wine in Sancerre since 1670. Today, ninth and tenth generation winegrowersJean and Ginette Thomas, and their children, Julien and Christale, farm 19 hectares. Theirs are not lean Sancerres; rather, both their terroir and the house style favor wines of great amplitude and texture, with long, lingering finishes. The Thomas' holdings encompass all three soils types in the appellation: flinty soils, Kimmeridgian limestone, and gravelly slopes of caillottes.

Jean and Julien farm their vineyards sustainably and shun the use of herbicides. They plow regularly to aerate the soil and allow a carefully controlled, grassy cover crop to grow in between vineyard rows to add nitrogen. De-budding and a green harvest control yields.