If your idea of Sancerre is a young, zippy lemony wine best drunk young then the rich and concentrated 2000 Le Chêne Saint-Etienne from Domaine Henri Bourgeois will comes as a considerable surprise. It has benefitted from imte in bottle to gain complexity including some honeyed evolved notes as well as some discreet buttery oak. Overall it has an excellent balance of rich fruit with enough acidity and freshness in the finish to stop it beng cloying. Definitely a food wine – I'm sure it would match most fish as well as being good with a chicken salad.
For the story behind the venerable Saint-Etienne oak tree that was destroyed by a storm in 1993 and then used to make barrels for a short series of top wines from Bourgeois – click here.
