Sancerre
Sancerre is a famous white Sauvignon Blanc appellation located on the left bank of the Loire. Its 14 communes are widely dispersed, covering nearly 3,000 hectares over vertiginous valleys at up to 350 metres above sea level, and three distinct soil types. As with nearby Pouilly-Fumé, an increasing number of single-vineyard wines are being raised in French oak, mostly 500-litre and demi-muids.
Sancerre is a famous white Sauvignon Blancanc appellation located on the left bank of the Loire, across from Pouilly-Fumé.
While Pouilly-Fumé's vineyards are tightly clustered and homogeneous, Sancerre's 14 communes (including the great villages of Chavignol, Bué, Verdigny, Amigny and Ménétréol) are widely dispersed, covering nearly 3,000 hectares over vertiginous valleys at up to 350 metres above sea level, and three distinct soil types: silex, a white flint found around Sancerre and Ménétréol in particular, giving perfume and a fine structure; terres blanches, a calcareous clay soil that whitens as it dries (widely distributed), delivering a full, fruity richness; and caillottes, a Portlandian soil brimming with large limestones imparting both power and verve – as found in Sancerre, Chavignol and Bué.
A fourth soil type, griottes, tightly-packed with small limestones, has also been identified – as found near the village of Vosges. Kimmeridgean clay crops up less consistently than in Pouilly-Fumé and since most Sancerre, bar the single-vineyard wines, are a blend of soils the result is a richer, fuller and fleshier Sauvignon Blanc.
As with Pouilly-Fumé, an increasing number of (single-vineyard) wines are being raised in French oak, mostly 500-litre and demi-muids; little surprise in light of naturally higher alcohol levels due to global warming. Sancerre Rouge is also made from Pinot Noir, the quality of which is often compromised by bleeding some of the juice to make rosé – Vincent Pinard is a master nonetheless.
Recommended producers: François Cotat, André Dezat, David Sautereau
Top vineyards include: Les Monts Damnés, La Grande Côte, Le Cul de Beaujeu, Grand (and Petit) Chemarin, Chêne Marchand
Prices:
Bottle
£16.95
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer, June 2017
Bottle
£16.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl445cs
Will Heslop, Wine Buying
Bottle
£17.25
A cool, refined mineral nose shows subtle hints of leafiness and green fruit. This wine has great purity and restraint as is the style of André Dezat’s whites.
The body is reasonably full thanks to the warm summer of the 2015 vintage but the wine does not show tropical notes, instead it focuses on fresh citrus aromas, culminating in a delicately mineral finish. Perfect with goats’ cheese salad or poached trout.
Bottle
£18.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl48cs
Bottle
£19.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl4cs
Simon Field MW – Wine Buyer
Bottle
£22.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl2cs
Francois Cotat has four plots among this large but consistently fine vineyard; a vineyard that stretches the breadth of the village's eastern escarpment, so facing west. Containing vines of approx. 30 yo, it's a wine that will grow grow, but should be drinkable from 2014/5.
The 2009 vintage was influenced by hail, draught hence an earlier smaller than average harvest, this is one of those rich sunny years where the personality of the vintage comes through stronger than that of the vineyard. Though Francois Cotat's 2009s come in at c. 15% abv they are balanced by the inherent minerality of his exceptional vineyards. (Such has been the climatic change that Francois hasn't needed to chaptalise since the 2004 vintage.)
Francois Cotat continues to make wine as his father Paul did; the domaine being born out of the split with Pascal Cotat in 1988. Francois joined the tiny but perfectly sited property in 1999, continuing to hand-harvest the fruit that is then vinified using wild yeasts aged in 80 yo oak barrels without any intervention. Francois reasons that the use of wild as opposed to selected yeasts enable his to be more digestible reflective of their origins. Neither fined nor filtered Francois continues to judicious levels of sulphur to guide the wines to full maturity. He follows the lunar cycle.
(David Berry Green)
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Adam Bruntlett
Showing pretty white peach, this is a relaxed wine with detailed aromas, reflected on a suave, spellbindingly silky & effortless palate. It may be the early drinking Sauvignon Blanc of the Cotat range yet it’s on another planet in terms of finesse & detail when compared to other producers who label their wines as ‘Sancerre’, probably on account of lower yields, hand-picked harvest and the use of natural/wild yeasts! Drinking from 2014 to 2022. David Berry Green
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Adam Bruntlett
Francois’s Monts Damnés is clearly the best example of this famous Sancerre Cru! Faithful to the nervy vintage, this wine is cool, compact, a taut, tightly coiled core of briny minerality, such tension, his use of old oak in vinification giving this wine a spectacular Island malt saltiness, very succinct, needs time, plenty of time, drinking from 2015 to 2025.
David Berry Green
After the flinty and cerebral 2014, David Sautereau has tamed the potentially indulgent ripeness of the generous and fulsome 2015 season with his customary understated skill. This is very fine indeed, zesty and linear, garlanded by herbs and verbena and luxuriating in the silky profundity of a mid-palate which marries the exotic and the restrained, stone-fruit austerity with peachy provocation.