This Week's Must-Try Wines from Vinous
Francis Blanchet
Cuvée Silice Pouilly-Fumé Sauvignon Blanc 2022
The 2022 Silice has a little flesh around its tight core. There's no doubting the vineyard's flinty nature with its arrow-like precision and firm texture. Rather than fragrant, it is stony and compact, offering subtle aromatics reminiscent of nectarine and pineapple. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Claude Riffault
Mosaique Calcaire Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2022
The new name for Riffault's Sancerre Blanc, 2022 Mosaïque Calcaire, is the house's main wine, combing up to 20 parcels. It's a supple, almost succulent style with ripe fruit - melon, pear and pineapple. It has a charming tenderness and holds the mouth with comforting reassurance. It remains light on its feet, like a cloud of Sancerre floating. It's ripe, but the alcohol remains moderate, and there's gentle acidity there. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Vincent Pinard
Chêne Marchand Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2022
The 2021 Chêne Marchand is a powerful, long-lived style with masses of concentration inside a mid-weight package. There's a ripeness of almost tropical fruit alongside nectarines and a touch of green gooseberry. A light creamy flavor joins the fruit. It is impressive, structured and firm. This will go the distance. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Gérard Boulay
Chavignol Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2022
The 2022 Sancerre is a tender, rounded wine with delicate pineapple, floral and pear aromas. It's gentle with a fine line of ripe acidity, providing gentle refreshment. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Domaine La Croix Saint-Laurent
Caillottes Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2021
The 2022 Sancerre Caillottes is a highly attractive style, offering the tenderness typical of wines grown on the caillottes terroir (limestone pebbles and clay) and the fine aroma. This highly floral style exudes fresh elderflower and chamomile with ripe apple and lemon fruit flavors. There's welcome precision and tension on the honed finish. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Domaine Vacheron
Les Romains Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2021
The 2021 Les Romains is a pure, clean and focused style. There's a delicate flint note on the nose and a precise line of acidity and push-pull texture on the palate. It's a firm style that speaks of its place - on the flinty side of Sancerre's fault line. There are no pretty florals here like you'd find on the chalk soils of Sancerre but a tension alongside greener-edged fruit. This is an assertive, vertical wine but not as nuanced. In time, it will improve, retaining brightness, unlike many wines found on the limestone, which are more immediately charming. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Domaine du Nozay
Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2021
Straight out of the bottle, the color of Domaine du Nozay's 2021 Sancerre suggests that this is not a conventional cuvée. Certified as organic and biodynamic, followed up with minimal intervention in the winery, it has a golden appearance. It displays a rich, lightly oxidative nose of baked apples, honey and an atypical but intriguing herbal character akin to fennel. Full and silky in the mouth, there's an appealing phenolic hug on the finish. This is an attractive wine, but for those looking for classic Sancerre for quaffing on a summer's day, this is not it. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Alphonse Mellot
La Moussière Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc 2022
The 2022 La Moussière is an open and pliant Sancerre. It offers immediate drinking with its supple texture and gently refreshing acidity. Subtle yet appetizing flavors of nectarine and citrus combine to create a welcoming, easy-to-enjoy style with harmony and pleasure. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago
Delectable Wine
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The 2021 Les Chailloux is Riffault's only Sancerre grown on flint soils - the rest is on limestone. And it evokes the scent of flint being struck. It is a cool, westish-facing site that doesn't get morning sun, so it's a taut, crisp, citrus style with gooseberry flavors and nettles. There's a hint of nutty character from time in barrel on lees, which has also provided padding around its focused, light-bodied core. The conclusion is taut, brimming with laser-like acid and almost tannic: it's a pocket rocket. The 2021 is a real terroir and vintage example. (Rebecca Gibb, Vinous, July 2023) — a year ago