Like so many established regions, this is a matter of both climate change and the changing mindset of a new generation who wants to evolve the reigning, established style. What I found is that it’s a critical time, an inflection point, in Sancerre. Since I was traveling in the Loire a couple months ago, I decided to pay the region a visit (it’s a little over two hours drive south from Paris about 2-3 hours east from Touraine) and check out what was happening.
I could not get this particular Sancerre out of my mind. Then, during an extravagant birthday dinner, I tasted a transcendant Sancerre, Didier Dagueneau Le Mont Damné (made by the legendary winemaker’s son, Benjamin, who has run the estate since Didier’s death in 2008). Vineyards in Chavignol, including the famed Les Monts Damnés.
SANCERRE WINE TASTING NOTES PROFESSIONAL
I confess, outside of professional tastings, I didn’t think very much about the wines. In 2013, Lettie Teague wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal that called Sancerre “wine’s Tom Hanks” because of its “familiarity and mass appeal.” In the article, Teague quotes a top New York sommelier who derisively calls it “the salmon of wines” and vows not to offer it by the glass, because “Sancerre would outsell everything else.” In the end, Teague decides that most people who enjoy Sancerre do so because of its “capacity to refresh.” And that’s pretty much been the word on Sancerre for about a decade. It’s generally crisp and refreshing and-as French words go-it’s relatively easy for Americans to pronounce. Nor, to be fair, has it become a caricature or gained a vaguely trashy reputation, like pinot grigio or prosecco. It’s not a darling of the natural wine movement, or collectors, or wine influencers. No one in the wine bubble ever evangelized for Sancerre. How do people discover the wines they like anyway? Deep in the wine world, we pretend to believe that critics or sommeliers or columnists or wine educators are the ones who stimulate the drinking public’s desires to try something new. Maybe this is why you, or someone you know, first tasted a certain sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley. Is Fifty Shades of Grey a relevant thing to bring into a conversation about Sancerre? Probably not. Perhaps you have seen the movie, or listened to the Fifty Shades classical music album, or bought the branded lingerie or handcuffs or riding crop. Perhaps you have read the original Fifty Shades trilogy, first published over a decade ago, selling more than 150 million copies in 52 languages.
Sancerre is among the favorite wines of Christian Grey-the notorious main character of the steamy, erotic, sorta-BDSM romance novel, Fifty Shades of Grey- which he enjoys with his lover, Anastasia Steele. Arriving in Chavignol, renowned for goat cheese and Sancerre wine.
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