Why it matters
The producer
The Jolivet family has worked in wine since Jolivet et fils was created in 1926. Pascal Jolivet had worked as an agent for Champagne Pommery by age 22 before creating the Pascal Jolivet brand in 1987. Today, Sauvignon Blanc is the thread through wines labelled IGP du Val de Loire, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé: the appellation on the bottle signals where the fruit was grown, while the range separates broader Touraine expression from Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.
The official profile reports 120 hectares between Sancerre and Pouilly-sur-Loire, plus 60 hectares in Touraine for Attitude. That spread allows the house to bottle a regional Touraine Sauvignon Blanc alongside wines tied more closely to the two Centre Loire appellations.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Sancerre is the home address, while Pouilly-Fumé sits across the Loire in its own appellation. Both names appear on Sauvignon Blanc bottles, but they are not interchangeable labels: each connects the grape to a separate collection of sites and villages. Attitude, from Touraine and labelled IGP du Val de Loire, sits outside that appellation pair and offers a different regional frame for the same grape.
The Signature Sancerre is built from several soil types rather than one parcel. Each component is vinified separately before blending, allowing soil-derived structure to remain legible in the finished wine instead of being flattened into one early tank blend.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Stainless steel arrived early at Pascal Jolivet, with the temperature-controlled Sancerre cellar completed in 1990. For Attitude Sauvignon Blanc, stainless-steel élevage keeps the wine’s fruit and acidity at the centre rather than adding oak flavour.
The Signature wines use gravity handling, indigenous yeasts and slow fermentation. Fruit from different Sancerre soils is kept apart through vinification, so the eventual blend can combine separate structural elements. Sauvage 2022 spent nine months on fine lees, adding texture and a saline finish to old-vine Sancerre fruit.
Wines to know
The range in view
Attitude Sauvignon Blanc is the Touraine bottle, labelled IGP du Val de Loire. Its stainless-steel élevage points toward a dry, fruit-led Sauvignon Blanc with acidity carrying the finish, rather than the added weight of oak or extended lees.
Sancerre Blanc Signature is the blended Sancerre. Multiple soil types are fermented separately, then brought together for a wine whose body and acidity come from several components rather than a single old-vine site. It is the house’s clearest expression of blending as a cellar decision.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Sancerre Blanc Sauvage. It is a dry Sauvignon Blanc from old-vine Sancerre terroir, with texture and salinity developed through its vinification and, for the 2022 wine, nine months on fine lees. The bottle brings together site, cellar work and palate shape: acidity keeps the wine moving, lees add weight, and the finish turns savoury and saline.