2010 Sancerre Sauvage

Jolivet’s 2010 Sancerre Sauvage reflects parcels situated between Bue and the western appellation outpost of Crezancy and enjoys a full year of lees contact and unfiltered bottling. Saline, alkaline, and fusil notes rise from the glass along with scents of lemon, green apple, and gooseberry, all of which anticipate the hard- and tart-edged, as well as diversely mineral impression this makes on the palate. There is a strongly phenolic cast here that when allied with dankly stony and fusil notes can be compared to certain evolved (often prematurely evolved) Rieslings: not uninteresting, but an acquired taste. Green apple and herbs take the lead in lending a bitter cast to the finish of this Sancerre that I would certainly plan to drink near-term. I suppose I ought not to have waited until the 25th anniversary of Pascal Jolivet’s now huge operation (just over a hundred estate acres in Sancerre and Pouilly, plus a roughly equal number under contract) to have canvassed an extended range of his wines, especially considering that he is among his region’s largest exporters and the wines virtually ubiquitous in U.S. markets. And even now, I limited myself to tasting samples, and then only wines currently exported from vintage 2010. The reason for my reticence (other, of course, than sheer time pressure) is that sporadic past encounters with Jolivet wines have left an impression of competence rather than excitement. The range here on the one hand extends to an extremely high-volume estate Touraine and a joint project in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand; and on the other, includes (as it has since early on in Jolivet’s history) a number of terroir- or vineyard-specific bottlings encompassing some well-known as well as some geographically marginal locations. The estate puts store in spontaneous fermentations and carefully controlled elevage of small lots by parcel. It must be said that like a couple of the Eastern Loire’s other biggest producers, if there are economies of scale here, they do not trickle down to the consumer, so that for less than the price of a good but uninspiring generic Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume from these giants, you could be savoring one of the couple dozen top wines of their respective appellations. (Regular readers will recognize that this opinion reflects no smaller-is-better prejudice, since there are many regions of France on which I report where the largest and most prominently exported brands offer both outstanding value and benchmark quality.) Jolivet emphasizes in his literature that “I have a strong philosophy that our wine is a beverage made to complement food,” but I am quite sure – as my tasting notes should already suggest – that you’ll need to choose carefully to find dishes capable of standing up to – much less generating synergy with – most of the tart, hard-edged examples I tasted from 2010. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700