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Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Didier Dagueneau. If anything could make me love The French again, it would be this. Didier Dagueneau was widely considered one of the best producers of Pouilly Fume in France.
In the United States, you would never find one of the most celebrated winemakers looking like this. Take a look at a photo of Robert Mondavi and his family. They look like they could just as easily be working in a bank or a tech company as at a winery. But good old Didier looked like Jerry Garcia and Grizzly Adams had a baby, and that baby grew up, went insane, and then decided to make wine. Wonderful wine apparently.
I have never tasted a Didier Dagueneau Puilly Fume, as they are quite pricey, but from what I hear they are delightful. This area called Pouilly Fume makes wines primarily from Sauvignon Blanc, and apparently the fog and clouds can create a smoky look in the slopes where the vines grow, hence the Fume (there should be an accent over the 'e' but I don't know how to make that happen), which means smoke, in the region name. Normally Sauvignon Blanc is not oaked, but Didier came along and decided to oak his wines (which can sometimes add a smoky, or toasty aroma and taste to a wine), thus mirroring the smoke of the countryside. In this way he took the concept of Terroir (which maintains that it is possible for a place to impart particular characteristics to a wine) to a different level.
From what I've read, Didier was a risk-taker: he rode motorcross, raced sled-dogs, flew ultralight planes (which ultimately proved to be his demise when he died in one in 2008), and he harvested his grapes riper than anyone else in the region. He followed his own path, his own loves, and his own passions. And in doing so, he made Sauvignon Blancs unlike anyone else in the world.
So raise a glass to Didier, and to the little piece of each of us that wants to blaze new trails, create something new, and never shave or cut our hair!
Cheers...
