IN PRAISE OF OLD SANCERRE
“There’s a well-known discussion point in the Wine Business that centres around the fact that only members of the Wine Trade buy German wine… So why don’t you prove them wrong?”
Lockdown has been weird. I’ve never drunk less wine during the week, and never ‘tasted ‘more at the weekend! It’s been an opportunity to experiment with all sorts of flavours but, as things have progessed, so I have gravitated towards the classics.
Perhaps the most interesting observations have been with white wine. I have travelled Burgundy from North to South. If you have a chance to snap up some 2017 Chablis then go for it. The precision and balance of the ‘17s is sensational. The two subsequent vintages have a great deal more ripeness, particularly 2018. The jury is out on the ‘19s. But I am a fan of bottle maturity. Apart from Burgundy I have spent many happy sessions trying a whole load of Mosel’s from 2000 on. There’s nothing to come close to an 8 per cent Riesling with 10 years bottle age! The poise, acidity, floral and spice notes that invade your senses are spectacular. You also get the bonus of seeing how well these Kabinetts and Spatleses partner food and deliver such surprises. You’ll be amazed how the world of cheese is completely turned on its head by the flavour combinations of mature Mosels!
There’s a well-known discussion point in the Wine Business that centres around the fact that only members of the Wine Trade buy German wine… So why don’t you prove them wrong? Go to your favourite place to buy wine and pick up a German Wine. There are some wonderful examples that shouldn’t set you back more than £10. You may know that I’m a great advocate of drinking less and drinking better. If you avoid drinking wine for half the week, you can treat yourself for the other half. Simples!
Perhaps the greatest surprise of the last three months has been my encounter with an eight-year-old bottle of Sancerre. I am a massive fan of the wines of Domaine Fouassier based around the town of Sancerre. Benoit and his cousin Paul farm biodynamically and have a dozen different cuvées produced from the Sauvignon Blanc grape. But unlike their New World siblings that offer gratuitous upfront somewhat hedonistic flavours, the Fouassier Sancerres are very reticent is an extremely attractive way. Sancerre at its best offers gorgeous floral notes, honeysuckle, lime blossom, jasmine and similar spice and aromatic notes. Probably due to their meticulous viticultural root (sic), Fouassier Sancerres do need time to show at their best. This makes it difficult to buy and drink, but Benoit holds his wines back an extra year before release.
So the wine that we drank was from the Chailloux Vineyard. Here the soils are ‘argilo calcaire’ loosely translated as clay and limestone. The vintage was 2012. If you start with healthy grapes and practise low intervention winemaking, the results are wines that will most likely age gracefully. Effectively these are natural wines. But they are so far removed for the derogatory definition which I feel pertains to that definition, that I would rather focus on the meticulous attention to detail that has delivered this spectacular bottle of wonderment. We drank the wine at cellar temperature, which Chez Wilbur is about 13 degrees Celsius. The flavours were so evocative! Aniseed, green apple, elderflower, allspice, wild thyme. Not a hint of vanilla or indeed other ‘artificial’ flavours.
If you can get to try an unusual white, either a new variety or something mature, then do give it a go.
