Domaine Vacheron Belle Dame Sancerre Rouge 2012
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Robert
Parker
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Pair with grilled lamb or beef; aged French cheeses
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From 50 years old vines on rocky, flint soils the 2012 Sancerre rouge Belle Dame offers a seriously delicate, precise and fleshy bouquet of truly ripe, juicy and thickly skinned dark fruits (cherries, blackthorn, black berries) along with lovely floral and herbal aromas and peppery flavors. This is a really fresh, intense and alluringly fragrant bouquet – just lovely! Full-bodied, fresh and mineral-laced on the piquant palate, this is a linear, intense, very delicate, silky textured, sweet and powerful Pinot with a stimulating grip and an impressive length. I tasted this wine along with the 2010 and 2009 and can say the 2012 is the finest and most elaborated Pinot of the trio with extremely fine tannins and a perfect balanced, almost weightless elegance. Aged in barrel for at least 18 months before release, this is along with the more transparent and fresh 2010, is the most impressive Pinot Noir from the Sancerrois I have tasted for this report.
Rating: 94+
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2018-
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Robert
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Organic viticulture has been a goal of the family for a number of years; as of 2003, the entire estate was certified organic. The following year the winery was converted completely to biodynamic agriculture--to be sure, you won't find more terroir-driven Sancerre anywhere else in the appellation. Jean-Dominique and Jean-Laurent Vacheron are ably leading the domaine to ever-loftier winemaking heights. The wines speak for themselves—always consistent, the quality of Vacheron Sancerre continues to astound.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
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.