Chateau de Tracy· Pouilly-Fume

Thirty-six generations. I don't say that lightly, the d'Estutt d'Assay family has held this estate since 1396, on the Portlandian limestone ridge above Pouilly-sur-Loire, and there are very few properties anywhere in the world with that kind of unbroken line. Tracy wears it quietly, which is part of why I trust it.

Juliette d'Estutt d'Assay runs the domaine now. She does not dwell on the history unless you ask, what you get instead is five wines, a stone-walled tasting room, and the particular silence of the place.

The straight Pouilly-Fumé is graceful and precise, and it is where most people should begin. But the 101 Rangs is something else entirely, vines planted in 1952 on a slope of pure Kimmeridgian marl. It carries the smokiness that gives the appellation its name, the fumé that comes off the flint, along with a weight and inner light that hold beautifully through a decade in bottle. I consider it one of the great expressions of Sauvignon Blanc in France, and I allocate it as such.