#2015Loire: photos from Sancerre

Thierry Véron's pickers celebrating the end of the 

harvest in the centre of Chavignol

 Another round of drinks 

Thierry Véron 

Box of Pinot Noir@Domaine Bourgeois 

Awaiting processing

 Sorting table@Domaine Bourgeois

 Pinot Noir@Bourgeois – very clean fruit

Cleanliness is all important

(above and below)

One of the eastern roads into Bué

Antoine Clérmont-Tonnerre

bringing Touraine expertise to Sancerre

(abobve and below)

Gilles Crochet (Domaine Lucien Crochet)

 

 

A few minutes to spare in Bué

Lane leading up into the vines

We arrived in Bué a good 20 minutes in advance of our 10 am appointment with Gilles Crochet (Lucien Crochet), so plenty of time to grab a quick coffee in the café in the square in the centre of Bué close to the church. We soon noticed that Gilles was busy loading a lorry parked in the middle of the square – time to take a few photos before starting to taste.

Side road in Bué

Gilles Crochet busy loading lorry

One lorry nearly loaded, while another waits up the road. Similarly we saw plenty of lorries in Chavignol – not too much sign of a crisis here, even though sales are down

Lucien Crochet's offices and cellar

Eau non potable – Bué's water may not be drinkable but its wine is!

Figurine clutching chicks with hen at her feet

Producer's sign

Once the lorry was loaded our tasting with Gilles confirmed my recent very favourable impression of his wines. To be covered in separate post along with details from the other visits we made to Henri Bourgeois in Chavignol and Albane and Bertrand Minchin (Menetou-Salon, Touraine and Valençay).

Sancerre does play a major role in its appellation

From the heights above Chavignol looking across vineyards to Sancerre with virtually all the vines in the photo within the commune of Sancerre

Eric Asimov (New York Times and The Pour) is one of my favourite US wine columnists. In mid-April his weekly article ‘Sancerre: Say It With Feeling’ 15th April 2009 was devoted to Sancerre and centred around a tasting of 2007 white Sancerres. I was pleased to see the 2007 from Lucien Crochet come out as the top recommendation. I think Gilles Crochet is currently doing a terrific job in all three of the colours of Sancerre. The runners up were Jean-Paul Picard, Domaine Vacheron and Pascal Cotat.

However, my attention was also caught by this assertion: ‘This is Sancerre territory, centered around the villages of Bué and Chavignol (very little wine comes from the town of Sancerre itself).’ (enboldened by Jim)

In this instance Eric Asimov is incorrect – some of the appellation’s biggest names are based in or around the town of Sancerre. I suspect that Sancerre producers like Château de Sancerre, Domaine Fouassier, Alphonse Mellot, Joseph Mellot, Domaine Vacheron and La Cave de Sancerre (co-operative) would take issue with him and I could throw in Pascal Cotat and Vincent Grall for good measure. Indeed four of Eric’s recommended producers (Vacheron, Pascal Cotat, Château de Sancerre and Thomas Labaille) come from the commune of Sancerre.

Leaving aside the producers the commune of Sancerre does also have some significant vineyards, in particular to the west, south west and south of the town. Famous sites such as La Moussière, Les Grands Champs, Les Romains and La Belle Dame are all in Sancerre.

Vines to west of town of Sancerre in the area that includes Les Grands Champs, La Moussière and Le Paradis

The commune of Sancerre also includes the villages of Amigny and Chavignol, although I suspect the inhabitants of Chavignol would insist that Sancerre is actually an adjunct or suburb of Chavignol and that French bureaucracy has made a mistake here. However until that decision is reversed, La Côte des Monts Damnés, Le Cul de Beaujeu and La Grand Côte are in Sancerre.

Lucien Crochet 2005 Cuvée Prestige Sancerre Rouge

Opened this excellent red Sancerre on Sunday night to go with slow roasted belly of pork. Domaine Lucien Crochet in the heart of the village of Bué is now run by Gilles Crochet. The 2005 Cuvée Prestige has lovely sweet ripe black fruits. It has opulent texture but is beautifully balanced with good freshness in the finish.

There has been some jokey comment recently on Tom Cannavan's wine forum that 2003 red Sancerres are good because it is one of the very rare occasions when Pinot Noir actually got ripe. Admittedly 2005 was a very good vintage but this beautifully judged red is shows that ripe Pinot is not that rare around Sancerre.

Sorting table@Lucien Crochet 6th October 2008

Alphonse Mellot rightly gets a lot of attention for his red Sancerres but, while Gilles Crochet makes less noise, his reds are certainly among the top four or five in the appellation. He is always one of the few in Sancerre to make an interesting rosé that justifies the price.

La Maison des Sancerre

View from the top of La Maison des Sancerre

(12 August 2008)
The highly recommended La Maison des Sancerre, in the centre of the old town, opened in 2005. The building, which dates from the 14th century, has been restored by the Sancerrois producers at a cost of €2.5 million. Benoït Roumet, the director of the Bureau du Centre, tells the story of the crucial meeting that gave the go-ahead to the project, which at the time was projected to cost €1.5 million thanks to some corner-cutting. Didier Prieur of Domaine Paul Prieur et Fils in Verdigny stood up and said that he was against the project. Benoît said that his heart sank as Didier is highly respected and his opposition would be a severe body blow. “If we are going to do this project, we can’t have half measures – no plastic windows, etc. We have to go for high quality, make something of which we can be proud.” paraphrasing Didier's words. In the vote that followed there was a big majority for the scheme – a high quality one.

As well as providing them with meeting and function rooms, there is a brilliant audio-visual exhibition of the Sancerre vineyard, its producers and their wines. The centrepiece is a remarkable light show on a 3-D representation of Sancerre’s vineyards that tells the story of how the region’s complex geological structure was shaped over millions of years. It makes a potentially dry subject completely fascinating. Absolutely brilliant – don’t miss it.

La Maison des Sancerre is a testament to the Sancerrois’ ability to work together and is extremely well done. It should be on everyone’s itinerary – an ideal place to develop an understanding of the appellation and its different aspects. If you have never been to Sancerre before I recommend that you really ought to start here.

Maison des Sancerres, Rue Méridien, 18300 Sancerre.
Tel: 02.48.54.11.35

www.maison-des-sancerre.com

Villa Quincy
Quincy has attempted something similar with their Villa Quincy. What a wasted opportunity and money not well spent. I went there in November 2007 not long after it opened. The information has been broken up into tiny bite-sized pieces – like feeding a very small child. My attention soon wandered. The Quincy producers opted for gimmicky information gadgets, which even then were breaking down. All in all a triumph of design over substance. Vignerons of Quincy go to the Maison des Sancerre to see how it should be done!

PS: Their website does, however, have a useful list and details of the Quincy producers but why is the whole site in bold type?!

Villa Quincy, Rue du Poinçon, 18120 Quincy
Tel. 02.48.51.72.34
www.villa-quincy.fr