Alphonse Mellot snr drawing a sample of 2008 Sancerre Rouge

My fourth visit on the eve of the big Pinot Noir tasting on 19th December was to Domaine Alphonse Mellot where I tasted the latest cuvées with Alphonse snr. The visit reinforced the overall quality of the Alphonse Mellot reds as indeed the tasting the next day where the Mellot reds performed consistently well. As Chris Kissack recently asked, "How can you make red Sancerre this good?" Low yields and meticulous work in the vineyards is a large part of the answer. Another significant part of the answer is the vision and determination of Alphonse Junior, who, when he joined his father in running the business in 1993, told him that he wanted to make high quality Pinot Noir. Alphonse snr famously told him it wasn’t possible. Junior soon proved his father wrong

Alphonse Mellot snr

Tasting area in the Alphonse Mellot cellars

With Alphonse we tasted a number of impressive 2008 barrel samples both white and red as well as the just bottled Génération XIX 2007 Sancerre Rouge that had very impressive depth and finesse for this difficult vintage. Next was the trio of the Mellot top reds from 2006 – Les Demoiselles, En Grand Champs and Génération XIX. Although the first two were very good, particularly the rich and soft En Grand Champs, Géneration XIX had a balance and completeness that Les Demoiselles and En Grand Champs didn’t have.

Alphonse spoke about the importance of touch and feel in winemaking. “To make great wine,” you have to take a risk,” he maintains.

The bi-plane that dominates the Mellot tasting room in the cellars –
sadly ironic following Didier Dagueneau's fatal plane crash in September 2008

To be continued with more reports from my visit to Sancerre in mid-December 2008.

Sancerre: autumnal view across the vineyards to the town

I was emailed yesterday by Julia Harding MW, who works on fellow MW Jancis Robinson’s site. With Jancis currently wintering in New Zealand, Julia is probably particularly busy.

Anyway the following message had been posted on their forum page (subscription access only) and Julia wanted a little background on Sancerre change red to white after the scourge of phylloxera hit the region at the end of the 19th century.

‘I have just read Christy Campbell's book on Phylloxera and learnt much that I did not know. Little practical value, of course but interesting. I discovered, for instance, that among the many chemical and other attempts to control the bug, in Beaujolais schoolboys were brought out twice a day to urinate on the vines. It did not help.

There is one thing that I am still confused about. In Chapter 3, there is mention of the fact that when grafting onto American rootstock became accepted not all varieties of European grape vines took. "The once Pinot-dominated vineyards of Sancerre were remade on grafts of Sauvignon..." OCW says that until the mid 20th century, Sancerre produced red wines and while wines from the Chasselas grape.

Can someone explain the apparent contradiction?’

Bustling centre of Sancerre

Following a quick phone call Julia posted a response:

'Ken, there are a couple of different points here. One critical thing you omit from the quotation from the Sancerre entry in the Oxford Companion is a comma! I appreciate it may be too subtle to be clear at a glance but the sentence runs as follows:

Quote:
‘Until the mid 20th century, however, Sancerre produced red wines, and white wines from the Chasselas table grape. The comma after red wines is intended to make it clear that Sancerre made red wines [variety not specified] and it also made white wines from Chasselas.’

The second point, implied by your reference to the comments in Christy Cambell's book, is that Pinot Noir did not graft well onto American rootstocks and therefore Sauvignon Blanc became more dominant post-phylloxera. I spoke to Jim Budd about this. Jim is a Loire expert though he may be better known to some for his dedication to pointing out 'dodgy deals' in wine investment (see his website). [+ link]

He said that he had often wondered about this but believes the grafting problem may have been one of several factors. Growers in the area have given him differing explanations (some more commercial than viticultural) though it seems quite possible that grafting was an issue. But it may have been that they were using rootstocks that were not best suited to the chalky soil or to the scion variety.

Chasselas was certainly very important in the Loire for table grapes in the period between the arrival of the railway in the mid 19th century and the (late) arrival of phylloxera. Jim also reminded me that the Pouilly-sur-Loire appellation still exists for Chasselas, as a vestige of its earlier significance.’


I am indeed fascinated by the transformation at the beginning of the 20th century of Sancerre from a predominantly red vineyard to a predominantly white one. I suspect that the early grafts of Pinot Noir were problematic, while the Sauvignon worked well. There may have been a commercial impetus also – wanting to be able to offer white as well as red. It is, however, important to remember that Sancerre was then economically poor with polyculture as the norm – largely subsistence farming. Typically farmers would have had a few hectares of vines, some sheep, goats, vegetables etc.

Whatever, the impetus behind the change, there is no doubt that turning to Sauvignon Blanc in time made Sancerre’s fortune that wouldn’t have happened had Pinot Noir remained the majority variety.

Pinot Noir: Sancerre

I’m intrigued that Jancis says that Chasselas was the majority white grape in Sancerre pre-phylloxera. As far as I can remember no-one has mentioned Chasselas being planted in Sancerre. Before phylloxera there would have been a number of grape varieties planted, although Pinot Noir probably with Gamay were the predominant varieties. So Chasselas may well have been planted in Sancerre but I doubt if it was a major variety.

On the other hand Chasselas as a table grape played a very important role in Pouilly during the 19th century, in particular the 50 years leading up to the arrival of phylloxera around 1890. During the harvest large quantities of Chasselas grapes were daily sent by train from the station at Pouilly to Paris. But even in Chasselas’ pomp there were other varieties planted in Pouilly, including Sauvignon and even some red wine made.

PS: Christy Campbell's book on Phylloxera is extremely good – well worth reading.

On Monday I phoned Charles Sydney, the long established Loire courtier, to see whether he had any reds form the Central Vineyards that were being sold in the UK. The call rapidly turned to the quality and value of these reds with Charles maintaining that there were few decent reds from this part of the Loire and even fewer worth the money – a view that I certainly didn’t agree with, especially having tasted over 160 of them just before Christmas.

We did agree that we approached this from very different perspectives – Charles trying to interest British retail buyers that these wines are good and worth the money, which is particularly difficult as the UK market is increasingly price-driven. I may or may not have crosses to bear but I’m extremely glad that I don’t have to sell wine to UK supermarkets for a living. Charles and Philippa, his wife, have been doing this for over 20 years now. Amazingly they are still reasonably sane.

Salon des Vins 2008: cake to celebrate Charles and Philippa's
20 years in the Loire

I’m in the fortunate position of being able to approach wines from the perspective of whether they are interesting and well made. Price is, of course, a factor but it isn’t dominant and I certainly don’t have to worry whether I can persuade a grower, who has already proposed a fair price, to give a lot more in promotions, BOGOFs and to take the pain each time the UK Chancellor of Exchequer raises excise duty or sterling crashes throw the floor against the Euro. No wonder many fine producers are increasingly happy to ignore the UK market.

Over the past month I have posted a number of comments on Central Vineyard reds. The 2006 Sancerre from Domaine Serge Laloue is further evidence that there are a number of very enjoyable Pinot Noirs now being made in Sancerre and elsewhere in the Central Vineyards. Made by Franck Laloue from a reasonable 45 hl/ha and costing 9.20€ this has attractive, soft vibrant red and black fruits and definite Pinot Noir character. Looking for something comparable in Burgundy, I would suggest something from the Côte Chalonnaise.

The Laloue Pinot Noir was picked by machine. Perhaps this would be even better if picked by hand. Talking to Didier Barrouillet just before New Year he said that Chardonnay and Cabernet – both Franc and Sauvignon – were the two varieties that could best support machine picking, whereas thinner skinned varieties like Pinot Noir are best hand picked.