Autumn colours@Maimbray

I was very pleased yesterday to get an email from Pascal Joulin, who I first met around 1995 when he was working for the La Cave des Hauts de Seyr in the Coteaux Charitois. He was making Chardonnay from vines planted in the Montaillant vineyard and Pinot Noir from vines at Saint-Lay. I think I first met Pascal in London at a tasting, impressed by the wines I later went to visit him at Hauts de Seyr. Much later La Cave des Hauts de Seyr ran into financial problems and in 2005 it was bought by Alphonse Mellot who renamed it Les Pénitents.

In 1998 Pascal moved on to Domaine des Granges in Suilly la Tour. Here he made vin de pays de la Nièvre as the property is just outside the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. In 2002 he moved to AC Sancerre to Domaine Michel Vattan in Mainbray. When Michel Vattan retired in 2008 Pascal bought the domaine, which has 7.80 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc and 1.30 ha of Pinot Noir. This year at the Decanter World Wine Awards we gave the 2010 Cuvée Argile from Domaine Michel Vattan a bronze medal. In the UK his wines are imported by The Sampler.

I think the last time I saw Pascal was when he was at Domaine des Granges, so I'm delighted he has made contact and brought me up to date and I look forward to meeting him again when I'm in Sancerre.

Rich, opulent – ripe yellow plum and peach – but less aromatic than one would normally expect with Sancerre, this is a typical 2009. The label indicates 13% alcohol and, although this is not unbalanced I suspect that it is a good 13.5%. This is really a Sancerre to drink with food rather than to serve as an aperitif. A little smoked salmon, for instance, cuts the opulence a little and reveals more acidity. With age it may be that this 2009 and others, just like 2003 will lose some of its puppy weight making the acidity more apparent and giving this Sancerre more zip.

Pascal Jolivet's winery is just off the road between Saint-Satur and Chavignol. He has nearly 50 hectares of vines (49.50 to be exact) and has vineyards in Bué, Verdigny and Sainte-Gemme. For this cuvée 50% of grapes come from limestone soils (caillottes), 30% clay and limestone (argile calcere) and 20% flint (silex). I assume that, like other producers, his vineyards in Bué were hit by the hail storms, while those in Verdigny and Saint-Gemme escaped.

Available from Winerack@£14.99 a bottle.

This is another from Wine Rack's Loire list and in comparison to the other three already reviewed I'm not at all enthusiastic about this Sancerre that comes from Olivier Thierriaz, a négociant based in Maltaverne, small village between Cosne and Pouilly-sur-Loire. This 2009 is short, unbalanced with quite harsh, unripe acidity. It is possible that this was a poor bottle, although it wasn't corked. Equally it may reflect the difficulty for négociants to source wine in a severely hail affected vintage. If it was a poor bottle it further makes the case for putting Sancerre into screwcaps.   

The back label