Sancerre
"the combination of a damp climate and generous yields can result in almost aggressively aromatic, light-bodied, relatively tart wines reeking of nettles and cats' pee." Jancis Robinson
Several years ago we found ourselves in Sancerre in the upper Loire valley for one night. The plan had been to stay in a small hotel by the side of a lake that we had come upon even more years earlier, and where we had had a divine meal in the village restaurant. It was a beautiful, quiet and tranquil spot and I think we were the only visitors. But you should never revisit such memories. For it was a weekend and the place was crawling with rowdy French fishermen and their families. Moreover the hotel was not open for guests. Before we got there we had actually booked the restaurant and to this day I feel guilty for not going back and cancelling. For we were so appalled, that we decided to drive on and find somewhere else. With the aid of the little red Michelin guide, that place became Sancerre and the Hotel du Rempart, which had a magnificent view over the vineyards, and whose restaurant was also very good. I think it might have been my introduction to Sancerre wine - which I loved - then and now. But then I love sauvignon blanc. I fell in love with it the first time I tasted Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc at a now defunct restaurant called Stella in Melbourne. I had never tasted any wine so divine. Well there was the Meursault in Meursault itself and the Bingen Moselle wine in Bingen itself ...
Sancerre itself as you can see from the picture above (I cannot find mine) is one of those beautiful old villages perchés with a pretty little central square, circular roads winding to the top and lovely old houses. It made up for our disastrous trip down memory lane.
Recently Sancerre wine has popped up here and there in various programs - plays, documentaries, films on television, so much so that I thought I would do a post on the subject. I knew that it was a sauvignon blanc but that was it.
So first of all a little history. Sancerre began making wine back in Roman times - but guess what - until the nineteenth century it was red wine - pinot noir and gamay which is used in making Beaujolais. But:
"With a cooler climate than Burgundy and more chalky soils, these grapes were like a smart kid with bad grades — they never quite lived up to their potential." Wine for Normal People
Then in the late nineteenth century the dreaded phylloxera struck and the gamay was completely wiped out, and the pinot noir almost. To get back into production quickly the vineyard owners decided to change everything, replant with American rootstock on to which they grafted sauvignon blanc - a grape well suited to the region - it came from the Bordeaux riverside not that far away and liked a cool climate. Moreover it was high yielding.
Although the choice may have been made with an eye to making a quick buck it turned out to be serendipitous, so much so that in the 20s it became the favourite drink of the partying Parisians. Since then it has maintained its popularity - with a few ups and downs, and I think, though I am not sure, that it is still quite a trendy wine. It has an Appellation Controlée but no grands or premiers crus.
Another thing I learnt was that there are actually three different types of soil (terroir) in the Sancerre wine region and that one of these is chalk which runs all the way to the white cliffs of Dover and up into the Champagne area. The people from Wine for Normal People describe these terroirs and the wines they produce thus:
"The terroir of the 15 villages that make up the area of Sancerre is particularly unique in that the soil varies, so the wine flavors are slightly different. For instance there is:
Flint, which allows wines to taste like chewing on rocks
Gravel, which makes more lemony, apple-like wine
Chalk, which makes heavier floral, grapefruit-like wine, and
Limestone and clay, which makes very high quality, rich, full more herbal wines (like fresh thyme or tarragon) that still taste a little like drinking from a waterfall."
Mind you I guess everyone has their own opinion about taste - see Jancis Robinson at the top of the page for example, and also the Wine Enthusiast Magazine
"Wines hailing from the calcareous-clay based Terres Blanche soils create powerful, full-bodied wines; the limestone Caillottes soils produce wines that are elegantly balanced; while the wines fashioned from the flint-rich Silex soils are often the longest-lived with a distinct gunflint quality." Wine Enthusiast Magazine
On the whole I think most of the wine critics damn with faint praise, as they do with the New Zealand sauvignon blancs - well sauvignon blanc in general really. Like Jancis Robinson's mention of 'nettles and cat's pee". She's right - to my mind the best New Zealand bottles do smell of cat's pee, though it's more grass than nettles I think. But it's somehow not unpleasant - more bracing - and it converts to a stunning taste - yes it's acid - they all complain about acid - but acid means fresh, stimulating, revitalising to me. Personally I think it's just because everyone likes it. Therefore it's not good. Well even more disturbingly - women like it and therefore it's not good. But I won't go there again.
So which Sancerre should you drink? There didn't seem to be an overwhelming consensus on this - though I saw the names Vacheron, Pinard and Perrié a fair bit. Lots of them are organic too.
And pinot noir is making a comeback in Sancerre. Rosé from the pinot noir too. So far it is only about 10% of the Sancerre wine production, but growing.
Pouilly Fumé, by the way, which I thought was just one of the Sancerre region villages, is a separate appellation. It's also a sauvignon blanc, and just across the river so I'm not sure why it's separate - they said maybe more musky and savoury but really! So I'll go with another pithy statement from Wine for Normal People
"France…the land of place names, not grapes"
