Sancerre
Sancerre
A small appellation of the upper Loire Valley in France, Sancerre is famous for producing crisp, dry Sauvignon Blanc wines. The distinctive gooseberry and nettle aromas, with grassy citrus flavours and stony, flinty character make for some of the most easily recognisable wines in France. Located at the eastern end of the Loire Valley, hundreds of kilometres from the ocean, Sancerre is closer to Burgundy than to the other Loire regions in the west. Three soil types lay the foundations for the aromatic white wines of Sancerre: chalk, limestone-gravel and flint. These soils, combined with the cool climate create wines of intense purity and bracing acidity, and wines produced from grapes grown in the flinty soils often have a distinctive smoky character. Red wines, made from Pinot Noir and labelled as Sancerre Rouge are also produced in this far-flung region of the Loire but make up only a tiny percentage of the annual output.
