Serious Sancerre

Chablis used to be the wine to wash down seafood in Paris. This certainty led to the dubious honor that every cheap, sharp wine in the world was called "Chablis." My father got an M.D. from the University of Paris in the 1920's. On his final oral exam in public health, one question was how to eat raw oysters safely, and the answer was "with Chablis." In recent years, however, Sancerre wines from the Loire have taken over. Chablis is too expensive and its name too debased by global identity theft (despite the fact that 2002 is a wonderful and inexpensive year for real Chablis.) Fifty years ago, there were 50,000 cases of Sancerre yearly, now there are more than a million. Until recently, I was underimpressed, even during a week spent cycling in the Loire valley two years ago. Sancerre struck me as no more than a pleasant and tangy white wine, nice for a casual meal of fish and a perfect match for young goat cheese. Part of its popularity in the US, so it seemed to me, was simply that it, unlike Chablis, wasn't chardonnay and so much of our chardonnay is gag-me-with-a-spoon thick and sticky. Sancerre is not the only wine made from sauvignon blanc ascendant in our market -- delicious New Zealand and California versions are also easy to find here. Pick up the Villa Maria SB at O'Malia's if you don't believe me. But over the last week, I've had some Sancerre that has awakened me to a great wine. I had Francois Cotat's Sancerre Les MOnts Damnees 2003, bought at Big Red for $37. Here are my tasting notes: "Pale yellow-gold, no hint of green. Expected scent of gooseberry, yes, but also pears and limes. Creamy texture, flavor of grapefruit and pear, with a refreshingly bitter finish. Open 30 minutes, also a touch of minerals, apple and clover honey. It is a privilege to drink this wine." I was so impressed that I went on to drink Cotat's top vineyard, La Grande Cote. This wine, surprisingly, was less exciting. Although good, it was a little dense and heavy for my taste. Maybe a year in the cellar would do something good or maybe the heat wave of 2003 did too much ripening for an already rich wine? All-in-all, delicious stuff and lovely variety but nothing will stop me from stocking up on '02 Chablis.