Winemaker Notes
Lively like the look in your eyes, sweet like a kiss. Very fine gold color with a green sheen. Its nose has a flowery fruity bouquet. Being pure and honest it is seducer from the outset. Flowers flit around, trees bend down to give their most beautiful fruits to us and the air we breathe is so sweet in this garden full of sweetness that it is intoxicating. Lively, supple and welcoming taste. Predominantly honest in a welcoming balance, it reflects a pretty grape, a fine harvest in the singing and laughter of the men and women pickers. It tells us of work well done in the divine order and Nature's kindness. It is fair, and all one expected and to cap it all there is happiness there.
Pairs well wtih fish tartare, mussels "à la Charentaise", pike with white butter sauce, chanterelle mushroom omelette, baked Norway lobsters, trout meunière, pike in saffron, braised ham with white sauce, tripe cooked the Caen way, Chavignol goatsmilk cheeses, and puff pastries.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Grown on the famed Kimmeridgian chalk of Sancerre, this wine is intense, tightly wound with young fruits and acidity. With its power, dense green-fruit flavors and steely edge, the wine is set for aging. Drink from 2022. Organic and biodynamic.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Sancerre La Moussière is quite rich, ripe and intense on the yeasty nose that represents a coolish, calcareous marl terroir with really old vines (roughly 60 years old). The fruit is reminiscent of ripe, yellow apples with just a discreet tone of gooseberries. Rich and intense on the palate, this is a powerful and, for now, quite creamy-textured Sancerre that lacks a bit of esprit, freshness and tension. The wine reveals fine tannins instead and might develop well over the years in the bottle but is definitely from a warmer, sunnier vintage. 14% alcohol. Tasted in November 2020. Rating: 91+
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
Marked by its charming hilltop village in the easternmost territory of the Loire, Sancerre is famous for its racy, vivacious, citrus-dominant Sauvignon blanc. Its enormous popularity in 1970s French bistros led to its success as the go-to restaurant white around the globe in the 1980s.
While the region claims a continental climate, noted for short, hot summers and long, cold winters, variations in topography—rolling hills and steep slopes from about 600 to 1,300 feet in elevation—with great soil variations, contribute the variations in character in Sancerre Sauvignon blancs.
In the western part of the appellation, clay and limestone soils with Kimmeridgean marne, especially in Chavignol, produce powerful wines. Moving closer to the actual town of Sancerre, soils are gravel and limestone, producing especially delicate wines. Flint (silex) soils close to the village produce particularly perfumed and age-worthy wines.
About ten percent of the wines claiming the Sancerre appellation name are fresh and light red wines made from Pinot noir and to a lesser extent, rosés. While not typically exported in large amounts, they are well-made and attract a loyal French following.