Benoît Fouassier sampling his 2011 Sancerre 

I spent much of Thursday, all of Friday and small part of Saturday morning in Sancerre and Pouilly visiting as many producers as possible. I tasted juice and fermenting wine with a  number of the producers – all seemed clean with no off flavours. 

Here are comments from several Sancerre producers:     

Stephane Riffault – Domaine Claude Riffault

"We started on the 5th September and finished on 16th. Everything is picked by hand. We had to be very selective this year, especially with the reds, as grape quality fell away rapidly. On average the Sauvignon came in at 13% potential with an acidity of between 4.0-4.5 and with a ph of 3.20.   The Pinot Noir was between 12.5-13.0% potential with a ph of 3.40."

Benoît Fouassier, Domaine Fouassier:

Picking started on the 1st September and we finished on Wednesday 14th. For the white we had an average yield of 50hl/ha with potential alcohol between 12.5%-13%, acidity between 4 and 5 depending on the parcel and when we picked. The Pinot Noir was between 12.5-13% with a yield of 35-40 hl/ha. We had to be careful with the Pinot as there was rot, so it had to be picked over with the sorting table in the cellar. 

Benoît commented about the situation for some producers:  "Those who use artificial fertilisers or weedkiller their vines started to see rot in their grapes from the 15th August."

Certainly tasting the fermenting wines at Fouassier, who are now biodynamic, the wines were all clean and precise.   

Jean-Marie Bourgeois – the patriarch on the phone 

Jean-Marie Bourgeois, Domaine Henri Bourgeois
Tasted the 2011 fermenting wines with Jean-Marie on Friday. We went through much of the range from the Petit Bourgeois, their vin de pays launched back in 1995 (Sauvignon only at that time – a red followed later) through to MD and La Bourgeoise. As with Fouassier and Michael Vattan all the wines were clean and precise with differences between the parcels becoming apparent.  


Jean-Marie Bourgeois: 
"The secret of our Le Petit Bourgeois is that we always work with the same producers, who are serious, and we pay above the market price." We tasted two examples of 2011 PB – one from Faverolles-sur-Cher and one from Choussy, which is close to Oisly.    

A new Bourgeois cuvée?  

Jean-Laurent Vacheron

Jean-Laurent Vacheron: Domaine Vacheron

Jean-Laurent: This year it was very important to stop tilling/working the ground in our vineyards in July to let the grass grow and so absorb summer rains. We started picking on 1st September and finished last Tuesday (20th). There was quite a lot of rot in the Pinot Noir, especially at the end, so we had to be selective.

Ungrafted Sauvignon Blanc in the Vacheron's Clos just by Sancerre's remparts  

After a swift look round some of the vineyards we tasted the recently bottled 2010s – joined by Jean-Dominique Vacheron. Their range of single vineyard bottlings has been extended: Le Paradis (calcaire – caillottes), Chambrates (calcaire - thin soil), Guigné-Chèvres (Oxfordian limestone), Les Romains (silex - flint) and Pavé (argile-calcaire – clay limestone). At this stage my preferences among the 2010 was for Paradis, Guigné-Chèvres and Romains.

We also tasted the 2010 red Sancerre – attractive pure Pinot fruit – and the 2008 and 2007 La Belle Dame. The 2007 BD is drinking well now, while the 2008 needs time but has greater potential than the previous year.

 Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron tasting their 2010 white Sancerres 

Jean-Dominique
**

Claude and Laurent Champault

Roger Champault et fils: Claude and Laurent Champault

Claude: "We were surprised by how well the vintage turned out because before the start we were worried by rot. We picked the reds first – those of the hillsides (clay and limestone) were healthy, while on the caillottes (pure limestone) there was more rot. The Pinot is around 11.5% potential alcohol with just under 5 acidity, while the Sauvignon is between 12.5-13.5%. Yields – 50 hl/ha for the Pinot and 65 hl/ha for the Sauvignon."

Benoît Roumet, director of the Bureau du Centre, told me this morning that the harvest at Sancerre and Pouilly is virtually finished and that the weather had continued to be favourable. They had a little rain but this may have benefitted those who picked later as it reduced the acidity and gave the grapes a little more juice.

I have now added further reports to 'A fine day in Pouilly and Sancerre' (7th October 2008). This postings is now finally complete.

These new additions are André Vatan, Pascal Reverdy, Stéphane Riffault, Gérard Cherrier (Château de Sancerre), Quentin David (Château Favray), Masson Blondelet and François Crochet.

Stéphane Riffault

(11th August 2008: Sancerre – cont)
Our next appointment was mid-afternoon with Claude and Stéphane Riffault (Domaine Claude Riffault) in Sury-en-Vaux. This gave us plenty of time to book into our bed and breakfast rooms in Sancerre – Les Logis du Grillon (http://nadcharp.club.fr/sancerre.biz/index.htm). Les Logis is a charming house in a narrow street in Sancerre’s old quarter. Run by Nadia and Pascal Charpentier, the rooms are comfortable with a breakfast area and an attractive secluded garden with tables and chairs. Nadia is from a family of hoteliers in the Auvergne and is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Sancerre and its surrounding area. She also speaks English. Although they don’t take cards, this is certainly a chambre d’hôte to recommend.

We chatted with Claude Riffault, who now takes a back seat, while waiting for his son, Stéphane, to arrive. The estate has 13.5 hectares of vines – 10 of Sauvignon Blanc and 3.5 ha of Pinot Noir. 60% of their production is exported with Richards Walford as their UK agent.

We asked Stéphane about the history of red varieties in Sancerre and why Sauvignon came to dominate after the devastation of phylloxera, which arrived here around 1880. “Before phylloxera ¾ of the vineyard was planted with red varieties – mainly Gamay with a little Pinot Noir as well as Pineau d’Aunis,” explains Stéphane. Much of Sancerre was planted during the 1920s and 1930s after the First World War. At that time it was polyculture everyone would have a few goats, grow various crops and have some vines. You didn’t live from vines alone.” Such was the dominance of Sauvignon Blanc here during the 1930s that when the first French appellations were drawn up in 1936 it was only for whites. It wasn’t until 1959 that reds and rosé Sancerre from Pinot Noir were made an AC.

The Riffault harrow the soils in their vineyards as well as having a band of grass. The amount of grass that is allowed to grow depends on the paucity of the soils and the amount of competition that the grass provides for the vine. Stéphane is not a fan of green harvests preferring to get the vines in balance before then. It seems likely that Stéphane will take the vineyards organic or perhaps biodynamic. An increasing amount of their harvest is now being picked by hand – it will be around 80% for the 2008 vendange.

The Riffaults have vines in the three terroirs (terres blanches: the steep clay and limestone slopes; caillottes: often bare limestone; and silex: flint) of Sancerre, which they bottle separately. In all the three cuvées 15% is vinified in wood for six to seven months in barrels that have already had at least three wines through them

First up a trio of 2007s. We started with the soft, grapefruity Les Boucauds (terres blanches). Next the very minerally, brilliantly focused and long-lasting Les Pierrottes (silex), which for me was a real stand-out wine. Then quite rich Les Chasseignes (caillottes) with grassy and grapefuit flavours but not as long or focused as Les Pierrottes. We also tried the promising 2007 Antique (terres blanches) with 30% vinified and aged in wood for 12 months. The Antique 2006 was rich and fat with pineapple and grapefruit notes but lacked zip. I preferred the minerality and fresher 2007s.

Stéphane prefers his Sancerre to be young. “Not interesting to keep,” he said.

We had a quick look at La Noué rosé 2007. Stéphane observed that: “Although there is a big increase in demand for rosé in the UK, we are not seeing much of an increase in France.” I liked the black fruited and silky La Noue 2006 Sancerre Rouge with its attractive Pinot Noir character and delicate wood-notes. I was less keen on the more concentrated Antique 2006 with more noticeable wood and s light dry finish – extraction pushed a little too far. Doubtless Antique needs several more years in bottle but may show some of the danger of pushing Sancerre’s red revolution too far and too be fair Antique 2006 is not due to be bottled until November 2008. Certainly neither wine would have been made 15 years ago when few producers took their reds seriously preferring high yields and light wines. For the reds the Riffaults are moving to small conical, cement fermenting vats – interesting how previously reviled concrete is making a comeback, while stainless steel tanks are losing some of their gloss.

During our three days in Sancerre several people opined that they saw Stéphane Riffault is an emerging star, so clearly someone to keep an eye on.

Domaine Claude Riffault, Maison Sallé, 18300 Sury-en-Vaux. Tel: 02.4879.38.22