Had a real treat at a lunchtime meeting yesterday when someone kindly brought along a bottle of François Cotat's 2004 Les Monts Damnés, Sancerre. When initially opened it was quite tight and mineral but after a while in the glass it opened up giving honeyed and floral notes. Beautifully balanced, this 2004 transcended the limitations of Sauvignon Blanc.

Last night nearly 30 people attended another successful Monday night tasting and dinner at the RSJ Restaurant in London's Waterloo. It was good to see many regulars present but also some people here for the first time.

Aperitif:



2007 Sauvignon Domaine de Bablut, VDP Val de Loire (that very well known Sancerre!)
From Anjou but a vin de pays and from Christophe Daviau. Some weight but overall very typical of the 2007 vintage – clean and precise.

White:

The first two Sancerres were served by themselves without food.

2007 Les Pierris

2007 Les Pierris, Roger Champault et fils

The Champaults are based in the same hamlet of Champtin between Bué and Crézancy and this comes from vineyards planted on clay-limestone. This was many people's favourite wine of the evening, combining the purity of the 2007 vintage with attractive weight.

2007 La Vigne Blanche, Henri Bourgeois
Comes from vines planted on chaillottes – white limestone with very little or, in places, no soil. Decidedly austere and lightly mineral.

Served with first course: an assiette of fish with herb risotto and pepper coulis


2007 Le MD, Henri Bourgeois

From Les Monts Damnés (damned slopes), the steep, south facing slopes above Chavignol, this is one of the Bourgeois' best Sancerres, which ages well. Characteristically minerally and with more weight and length than Les Vignes Blanches.

Note that the spelling of Chavignol, the commune, is in larger print than Sancerre, the appellation. However, the difference is not as marked as it used to be.

2004 Les Culs de Beaujeu, François Cotat

Les Culs de Beaujeu is another steep vineyard above Chavignol but on the other side of the valley from Les Monts Damnés. On the evening the Cotat was a bit of a puzzle. Often the Cotat wines are quite rich, while this, admittedly from 2004, was quite austere and seemed to tighten up over time, although going back to it right at the end it had opened up more. A wine to carafe and give an hour or so to open up?

Red:

The reds: 1996 Vacheron, 2006 Côte de Champtin, 2007 Les Pierris

2007 Les Pierris, Roger Champault et fils
Light and charming wine with the accent on the fruit, which worked surprisingly well with the lamb. One to enjoy when young.

2006 Côte de Champtin, Roger Champault et fils

Another steeply sloped vineyard, this 2006 unsurprisingly had more weight and concentration but is currently less expressive than the 2007. Needs another couple of years in bottle.

1996 Domaine Vacheron in magnum

The Vacherons have long been one of Sancerre's top producers. This had wonderfully, seductive Pinot Noir aromas – autumnal undergrowth, mushrooms (French use the term – sous bois) and just shows what a decade or more in bottle can give.

All three reds were served with: roast saddle of lamb, fondant potatoes, Savoy cabbage, carrots and a red wine jus


Dessert: Lemon & mixed berry roulade

RSJ Restaurant, 33 Coin Street, London SE1 Tel: 020-7928 4554.

The Cotat tasting room. I would have liked to take a picture
of François but he prefers not to have his photo taken.

(11th August 2008: Sancerre)
A fairly early start from Touraine saw Sarah and I arrive in Chavignol around 11.30am. The weather was far from summery – showers and well less than 20˚C. Our first appointment was with François Cotat. This had been arranged through Richards Walford, Cotat’s UK agents. François had forgotten but fortunately was busy working in his cave, so we were able to taste with him.

François Cotat’s father, Paul, and his brother, Francis, used to work together. However, in 1998 their respective vineyards were separated out. Now François looks after the four hectares that belonged to his father, while his cousin Pascal Cotat, now based in Sancerre, has 2.5 hectares. François has vines on La Grande Côte, the Cul de Beaujeu and the Mont Damnés on very steep clay-limestone slopes around Chavignol. He also has a parcel of young vines on the caillottes between Chavignol and Sancerre on lower, more gently sloping land. The caillottes is pure limestone with little or no soil. François made his first vintage from these vines in 2005. There are 8000 vines per hectare – higher than the more normal average of 6500 vines per hectare – with an average yield of 60 hl/ha. François uses the natural yeasts, no debourbage (must settling), no sulphur during fermentation and only one battonage (lees stirring) after the fermentation has finished.

We started with the quite austere, nettley and mineral 2007 Jeunes Vignes. Then onto the richer, more concentrated 2007 Mont Damnés with gooseberry notes from 25-year-old vines. Next was the rich and Cul Beaujeu 2007. The soil in Cul de Beaujeu has more clay than the more limestone soils of Les Monts Damnés. This leads us into the stand-out 2007 – La Grande Côte. Powerful and citric with a lot of concentration, this needs plenty of time to show its best. Indeed the Cotat wines all benefit from time in bottle and generally age magnificently. “The wines need time to express themselves,” says François.

Sarah asks François what type of clones he uses. “I’ve no idea,” he replies.

We taste some older vintages. The rich 2000 Monts Damnés with floral and peach flavours and mineral length in the finish. Followed by a very fine 1995 Cul de Beaujeu again rich but this time with grapefruit and pineapple to the fore. The 1989 Grand Côte had notes of white truffle and liquorice. 15% in this very hot year. We finished with 1995 demi-sec – type of late harvest style harvested on the 20th October. Although it has good balance and finesse I prefer the dry styles. “Before 1936 a lot of the wines made in Chavignol were demi-sec,” explained François, “because of the difficulty of fermenting very ripe juice to dry. Nowadays cultured yeasts are used in 90%-95% of Sancerre wines.



From time to time the Cotats have had problems with the French wine authorities. The name Chavignol on their labels used to be printed substantially bigger than that of the appellation Sancerre. In 1998 and 2002 their wines didn’t get the appellation because too much residual sugar remained in the finished wines. They had to be sold as vin de table. Unsurprisingly this made no difference to sales – people buying Cotat are buying Cotat irrespective of the appellation. That the 1998 Cotats took the first three places in a Wine Spectator tasting doubtless helped as well.

However, the story of these wines refused the appellation may well not be clear-cut. When I saw Denis Vacheron, who is president of the Union Viticole Sancerroise, on Wednesday (13th) he explained that there had been a declaration of chaptalisation. Sancerres that have chaptalised must be fermented to dry and cannot have residual sugar if they are to obtain the appellation. Needs further investigation.

François Cotat, Chavignol, 18300 Sancerre. Tel: 02.48.54.21.27