Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pouilly-Fumé Vignes de Berges comes from a 3.5-hectare parcel with 30-year-old vines on kimmeridgian marne soils with a high proportion of stones known in the appellation as terres blanches. It produces the most earthy of the Pouilly-Fumés produced at the estate. Attractive clear, cool, fresh, and precise fruit flavors of elderflowers, nectarines, gooseberries, Kiwis and limes. This is very flinty and quite Riesling-like on the nose, but also on the palate where this severe Pouilly is intense, fresh, really piquant and almost austere in its naked minerality. This is a love-me-or-leave-me Sancerre with a very good length, a nice grip and a great aging potential. There were 3,000 bottles imported into the US.
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.
Famous in the Loire and throughout the world for perfumed Sauvignon blanc, Pouilly-Fume sits due east, across the Loire River from Sancerre. Limestone soils with clay and flint (also called silex) contribute to the wines' freshness and often times smoky, flinty, mineral character.