Winemaker Notes
The near-vertical slope of the Monts Damnés produces wines that have delicate tropical fruit (a proof of ripe Sauvignon grapes) and vibrant citrus aromas. The palate confirms this fruitiness and brings a nice and clean mineral note. Served at 10-12°C, this very concentrated wine expresses its strong personality. With three to five years of bottle-aging, the wine gains roundness, richness and complexity.
This wine can be enjoys with a great variety of dishes: Asian recipes, white meats like veal escalope stuffed with prawns and marjoram. As for cheese, a Munster would do a great match.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted in early March, the 2019 Sancerre La Côte des Monts Damnés offers a highly attractive bouquet of just-ripe plums, apricots, mango, passion fruit, elderflower, spicy/herbal and spring-like leafy terroir aromas with delicate iodine ad lemon notes in the background. From Kimmeridgian marls and aged on the lees for 10 months, this is a full-bodied, round and aromatic yet vital, fresh and tensioned picture-book Mont Damnés with lovely grapefruit bitters on the long and complex finish. The wine is round and intense, very elegant and perfectly balanced, just spectacular in its early accessibility. Possibly the finest of the last decade.
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Wine Enthusiast
The steep Monts Damnés vineyard is close to the Bourgeois winery in the village of Chavignol. Young and with a tight texture very much intact, this wine is set for some aging. Fruit and minerality vie for prominence, giving a vivacious wine that will be ready from 2023. Monsieur Touton Selection Ltd. Editors’ Choice.
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.