Winemaker Notes
This refreshing, very fruity Rosé will seduce you with its bouquet of ripe red fruits. It's easy to drink, fresh and particularly well-balanced in structure and aromas.
Sancerre Rosé (formerly labelled under the name Les Jeunes Vignes Sancerre Rose) is a wonderful aperitif, like a ray of sunshine on your table! Whether to whet your appetite or to accompany dishes throughout the meal, this Sancerre Rosé is surely up to the task. Great with salads, springtime meals, or picnics – it’s also a splendid wine to accompany Asian cuisine.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a delicious, firmly Loirerooted rosé. Red cherry, white tea and cranberry are accented by dried field grass and red-currant blossom on the nose. The wine leads with red fruit yet acknowledges a subtle, savory undercurrent that adds depth and imparts structure. Pair with mushroom dishes, roasted chicken and tapas.
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James Suckling
A delicious, fruit-driven and refreshing pinot noir rosé with notes of red currants, candied cherries and mild spices on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with a round and mellow texture. Succulent and joyful.
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
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.