Winemaker Notes
Paired with moules marinières, saffroned clam soup or sea bream in a salt crust, Les Romains will amaze by its freshness and precise minerality – a versatile wine that will delight in its present state and go on to reveal its full breadth after a few years cellaring.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Sancerre Les Romains opens with a deep and intense, beautifully floral and herbal bouquet indicating a first maturity and revealing white fruit aromas and some coolish flinty-marly notes. The combination of cool (terroir) and warmth (sun) is really fascinating here. On the palate, the wine is dense yet immediately mature in flavors and fruit aromas, whereas the finish is lively fresh and tensioned, developing good length and stimulating grip and salinity. This is a fascinating wine that should develop with air. So, a carafe is more helpful than a big glass—a wide Burgundy glass should be perfect in any case. Tasted in January 2021.
-
Wine Spectator
A piercing rapier of a wine, with a dry, chiseled feel to the flint, chalk and chive notes that remain steely and focused through the finish. A light verbena hint echoes at the very end. Drink now through 2021.
-
Decanter
This comes from a unique part of Les Romains with flinty clays on the surface and limestone beneath. It’s bright gold in colour, with subtle, creamy lime scents. The palate is fresh, elegant, vivid and long, with more of that lime fruit and an essence of spring-leaf freshness. Drinking Window 2018 - 2022
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.