My First Sancerre!

This is the third month into my second year of learning about wine and I've had my first Sancerre. I've had Sauvignon blanc wines before, but I was excited to try my first from France. I hoped that the French version would be more pleasing to me than the sweet, really fruity versions I'd already tried.

Geographically, Sancerre is a town almost directly in the center of France. It is located at the tail end of the Loire Valley. "Enologically", Sancerre is Sauvignon blanc. Wines from other grapes are made in Sancerre, but the name has come to be associated with white wines. The soil of this area is desibed as "Marl Limestone" or "white soil". I was pleased to read that grapefruit is a common flavor componant of a Sancerre.

The Sancerre I tried was the 2006 Henri Bourgeois Grande Réserve Sancerre. The Henri Bourgeois web site made these notes about the wine:
"The hills and ridges separating the village of Chavignol from Sancerre are composed of clay and limestone chalk (65% clay and 35% chalk). 'Grande Réserve' comes from this terroir so long planted with vines.
Fermentation in thermoregulated stainless steel tanks at 15 - 18°c then oak-aging for 5 months on its fine lees preserves the aromatic potential of this fine wine."

The process of fermenting "on lees" refers to leaving wine with the deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate after the yeast is done converting the sugar to alcohol. This lends a yeasty flavor to the wine. (It's interesting to note that when my wife smelled this wine she thought it smelled like beer.) The oak-aging is supposed to add more "depth" to the wine, but I don't think this is the typical way that a Sancerre is made.

I liked the result of the process! When I sniffed the wine, I detected the distinctive cat pee smell that I've come to associate with Sauvignon blancs. On the first day, I could smell yeast and some citrus but had a hard time placing it. I had to settle on lemon. But when I tasted and swallowed the wine, I knew what it was: grapefruit! The wine was dry, with just a hint of sweetness, a quality that differentiated from most Sauvignon blancs I've had. There oak in this wine is very pronounced, almost making me think it was an oaked Chardonnay. After swallowing the wine, I could really detect grapefruit. It was like I was tasting the rind of the grapefruit; a pleasant finish to me.

I enjoyed my first Sancerre with some Chinese food. I liked the dryness and grapefruit finish, but was a little disappoined by the amount of oak. I want to try another Sancerre that hasn't been aged in oak. It would be interesting to try one that has been fermented on the lees with no oak and one that has not touched either lees or oaks. Any suggestions?

Tasting Notes:

Color: Light golden and clear

Aroma: Slight cat pee, citrus, yeast

Taste: Oak, dry grapefruit peel. The wine has a slight mouth feel, heavier than a typical Sauvignon blanc

Finish: The grapefruit rind finish lingered for a while after sipping the wine.

Is There Still Gold in Australia?

That’s what the wine makers at Aussie Vineyards would have you believe with their line of Au wines. The attractive bottles have been catching my eye as I shop at a Sacramento area grocery store chain, Raley’s, which has an exclusive arrangement to carry the wines.


I wanted a Chardonnay to go with the roasted chicken and garlic potatoes my family was having for dinner last night. After picking selecting a bird and a tub of ready to heat mashed potatoes, I decided to try the Au. From the description on the bottle the wine seemed to be the way I like Chardonnays, with oak. At $10 I didn’t have too much to lose.


Aussie Vineyards is located in Queensland, South Australia, in the newly coined Limestone Coast. The grapes for my particular wine came from the Henty Estate vineyard in the Granite Belt region, one of the better known wine regions in Queensland. As its name implies, the soils in this area are granite laden. Its elevation makes it the coolest part of Queensland and there is relatively low rainfall. Grapevines tend to do well here and it seems an ideal place for Chardonnay.
Tasting Notes:


Color:
Light golden yellow

Aroma:
Oak was the predominate smell. I couldn’t detect any citrus, but just the almost vanilla aroma of a Chardonnay.

Taste:
Oak again was the main flavor I could detect. There was also a lot of heat from the alcohol, even though it was only 13.8%. The bottle described this wine as buttery, but I didn’t detect it, though it did have a slightly thicker mouth feel.

Finish:
The finish was awkward, a combination of the heat from the alcohol and residue of oak.

This was an unimpressive Chardonnay. However, I did enjoy it more than an unoaked version that tastes more like a Sauvignon Blanc. It went well with the roasted chicken and garlic potatoes.