Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This steep slope of vines dominates the village of Chavignol, home to the Bourgeois family. An aromatic wine, it is crisp, textured and full of citrus and gooseberry flavors. This beautiful wine is still young, so wait to drink until 2019.
Cellar Selection
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Wine Spectator
Very pure, with a racy feel to the lemon pith, white peach, thyme, and gooseberry notes, backed by a brisk flinty edge on the finish. A light kiss of shortbread hangs in the background and should emerge a bit more with modest cellaring. Drink now through 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From Kimmeridgian marl soils, the 2017 Sancerre La Côte des Monts Damnés opens with a more subtle and elegant bouquet compared to Les Baronnes. Passion fruit and black cassis flavors with some dashes of lemon juice lead to a full-bodied, intense and very elegant palate with a powerful and well-structured finish. Very long and with gooseberry flavors in the long aftertaste. This is a serious, structured and persistent Monts Damnés with an aging potential of up to 10 years.
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Decanter
I marked this down as a Sancerre, and it didn't let me down: the subtle lemony nose is followed by an almost-tart attack with some soapy, slightly bitter elderflower notes. It has nice crisp acidity and great persistency. A good food wine.
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.