Winemaker Notes
#45 of Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2018
Its green gold color has some bright and luminous reflects. Its nose is quite expressive and complexe. It evolve all along the tasting. It opens beautifully on exotic fruits, green mango, citrus, honey and a hint of menthol. The mouth is powerful, round and harmonious. One can taste fresh grappe but also a refreshing and sharp minerality. It is a particularly long lasting wine.
Sancerre Jadis, a true original, deserves an original cuisine that allies local and exotic tastes, principally fish or white meats that play with salty-sweet associations. For example, filleted chicken breast with honey and rosemary in supreme sauce or "Char Fontaine" with curry and candied oranges. Try a St. Nectaire cheese or an Oka from Quebec with a little honey, warmed in the oven and presented on a slice of fresh peach.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
From steeply sloping, well-exposed vineyards in the village of Chavignol, this wine is concentrated and still young. With its intense green and citrus fruits, strong herbal character and spice, it is rich and impressive. It is a wine for further aging, so don't drink before 2020.
Cellar Selection
-
Wine Spectator
Rambunctious chive, savory and thyme notes sprint to the lead while lemon pulp and gooseberry fruit flavors chase from behind. A steely, flinty edge adds cut and length on the finish, leaving a mouthwatering feel. Drink now through 2021.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Sancerre Jadis is a parcel selection from Chavignol's Kimmeridgian marl parcels and is vinified in 600-liter oak barrels and stainless steel tanks before it is racked and bottled in accordance with the lunar cycle. No filtration. The wine opens with a beautifully intense and generous bouquet with perfectly ripe and lush fruit. Round and lush on the palate, this full-bodied and elegant wine reveals a stunning crystalline structure, finesse and length as well as purity and tension. This is highly attractive in its sensuality and intellectual dimension. The finish is dangerously stimulating and piquant.
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.