Upper Loire Valley White Wine

We tasted wines from the upper Loire Valley this past Thursday. Five of the wines were from Sancerre and one from Pouilly-Fumé. Two of the Sancerre and the Pouilly-Fumé were also from the same producer. I was going to describe each wine separately but since they are all so similar and all Sauvignon Blanc, I’ll just give my overall impression and then when I list the wines I’ll mention how they stood out, if they did. They all had fairly similar flavors of minerality and citrus and all had plenty of acid. The Pouilly-Fumé had a more flinty character with less fruit. You really won’t go wrong with any of these. They all go well alone or would do well with sea food or food with cream sauces.

2009 Chateau de Sancerre Passe Avant le Meilleur – Good acidity and mineral, citrus flavor.

2010 Sancerre La Croix du Perthuis (the strong favorite) – The most complex of the group with gooseberries, mineral and citrus in the nose and flavor.

2010 Pascal Jolivet Sancerre – This was the biggest wine, lots of citrus and some bitterness, maybe grapefruit.

2009 Attitude Sauvignon Blanc – Another wine by Pascal Jolivet, this is obviously aimed at the American market where we usually shop by varietal rather than AVA.

2010 Domaine de Chatenay Menetou-Salon – Technically not a Sancerre but just to the west and close enough to have the same characteristics.

2009 Pascal Jolivet Pouilly-Fumé – Less fruit than the Sancerre’s but a real flintiness in the flavor. A real nice change from the others.