From the beginning in 1974, farming and winemaking practices here have been noteworthy. The breakdown is 19 hectares (47 acres)of Sauvignon and 4 hectares (10 acres) of Pinot Noir for red and rosé. Today, Henry and Cécile farm 23 hectares (57 acres) of vines. Almost no one thinks of old Sancerre, which is a shame because the good ones can amaze. Stored properly, a top twenty-year-old Natter Sancerre retains astonishing freshness while evolving down to its elemental, mineral base. (Kimmeridgian is found on the hilltops curving around the western edge of the appellation Caillottes, or Oxfordian limestone, is found in the center of the appellation and flint or silex is found along the fault line running north-south through the town of Sancerre itself.) This soil gives great power to the wines, and a remarkable ability to age without oxidation. The Natter family domaine was the first on this side of the modern appellation of Sancerre and remains the only winemaking domaine in Montigny, a terroir noted for its preponderance of terres blanches, or Kimmeridgian Marls. Afterward, apart from a few scattered vineyards, the viticultural reconstruction generally passed these hillsides by and the area became a breadbasket for the local grain farmers. This was in Sancerre’s southwestern heights, an area widely planted to vines before phylloxera. They married, planted half of that hectare on a hillside running up behind the village, and started a family (that's Cecile with her daughter Mathilde in the photo to the left). Henry and enologist Cecile Natter started their domaine in 1974 from scratch, beginning with a family hectare in Montigny.
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