Jean Pabiot et Fils

Pouilly-Fumé, Upper Loire, France

The Pabiot family has been growing vines in Les Loges, right in the heart of Pouilly-Fumé, since at least the 1800s. Like most growers in the area, they didn’t start as a “wine estate” in the modern sense. It was mixed farming, a bit of everything, with wine slowly becoming the focus as the family brought together their best parcels over time.

Today, the estate is in the hands of Jérôme Pabiot, the grandson of Jean Pabiot, carrying forward five generations of winegrowing. His father, Alain, is still part of the story, but Jérôme now leads both the vineyards and the cellar. What’s striking is that nothing has been radically changed. It’s more a process of tightening things, refining details, and staying true to a way of working that has always been rooted in the land.

The domaine is entirely planted to Sauvignon Blanc and covers 42 hectares across about 40 parcels in five sectors of the appellation. That spread is key because the soils shift constantly, and that’s really where the identity of the wines comes from.

You’ve got caillottes, those white limestone pebbles, which dominate much of the estate and tend to give wines their open, generous aromatics and sense of immediacy. Then there’s Kimmeridgian marl, full of fossilized oysters and marine sediments, bringing more structure, depth, and elegance. And finally, silex, or flint soils, which add tension, minerality, and that slightly smoky, more reserved edge that Pouilly-Fumé is known for.

In the vineyard, the philosophy is pretty straightforward. The goal is to achieve the best possible ripeness in the most natural way possible. That means reducing chemical fertilizers in favour of organic inputs like manure, and actively feeding the soil by ploughing pruned vine shoots back into the ground. The vines are carefully managed to open up the canopy, giving grapes more air and sunlight, which helps everything ripen evenly and cleanly. Then, depending on the vintage, they’ll fine-tune with green harvesting and leaf thinning to keep yields under control.

In the cellar, nothing is overdone. The wines are made mostly in stainless steel to keep them precise and transparent, with very little oak influence. They age in old underground cellars that are several centuries old, which naturally slows things down and allows the wines to develop steadily.

We’re excited to start pouring a small lineup that really shows what Pabiot is all about. The Pouilly-Fumé AOC Domaine des Fines Caillottes is the easy one to love, coming from that full mix of soils. It’s bright, citrusy, a little exotic, and just super drinkable. Then Pouilly-Fumé AOC Kiméride dials it up. From Kimmeridgian limestone, it’s got more depth, structure, and that serious edge, but still stays clean and precise. And we’re bringing in Sancerre AOC La Merisière Blanc and Rouge too, same mindset, just pure, focused wines that actually taste like where they’re from.