Didier Dagueneau

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One of the Pouilly Fumé wines taken over by Dagueneau's son, Benjamin.

Didier Dagueneau (1956[1] – 17 September 2008[2]) was a winemaker in the Loire Valley who received a cult following for his Sauvignon blanc wines from the Pouilly Fumé appellation. He died on 17 September 2008, in an ultralight plane crash in the Cognac region of France.[3] He is survived by two children with his ex-wife Martine, Benjamin and Charlotte, who work at the domaine, and two children with his partner Suzan Cremer, Aaron and Léon.[4]


Dagueneau was born in 1956 in Saint-Andelain, Nièvre, Burgundy.[1] His winery with 12 hectares (30 acres) of vineyards[1] was in the town of Saint-Andelain, in Pouilly Fumé. He was seeking to make "the best Sauvignon blanc in the world".[2] He made a variety of different cuveés, including Buisson-Renard, Pur Sang (French for "pureblood"), Asteroïde, and Silex ("flint"). Somewhat unusually for the appellation and grape variety, many of his wines were meant for cellaring and some had a clear influence of oak. He was also developing vineyards in Jurançon.[4]

An ex-motorcycle racer with no formal enological training [5] Dagueneau clashed with other winegrowers about "typicité" ("typicity" or "showing its origin") while achieving unprecedented prices for the region.

His vineyard practices were a combination of the exacting (extremely low yields, hand harvesting in multiple passes[5]) with the unusual, such as using horses to plow the soil between vines.[6] He was described as a risk taker and an experimenter, with perfectionist attitudes to his work, cutting yields severely to achieve greater ripeness.[7]


  1. ^ a b c Styles, Oliver, Decanter (21 January 2008). "Didier Dagueneau". 
  2. ^ a b Styles, Oliver, Decanter (September 17, 2008). "Didier Dagueneau dies". 
  3. ^ Dressner, Joe, The Wine Importer (September 17, 2008). "Didier Dagueneau RIP". 
  4. ^ a b Molesworth, James, Wine Spectator (September 18, 2008). "Didier Dagueneau Dies in Aircraft Crash at 52". 
  5. ^ a b Friedrich, Jacqueline, Wine Spectator (May 31, 1995). "Rebel With a Cause: Didier Dagueneau's outspoken manner ruffles feathers in the Loire, but his convictions advance the quality of Pouilly-Fumé". 
  6. ^ Robinson, Jancis, JancisRobinson.com (September 18, 2008). "Didier Dagueneau's final flight". 
  7. ^ Asimov, Eric, The New York Times: The Pour (September 18, 2008). "Didier Dagueneau Killed in Plane Crash".