Wine Advisor
Vacheron, Sancerre Les Romains 2020
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Rebecca Gibb
Les Romains is a vineyard with its feet in flint to the east of the fault line in Sancerre. The 2020 Sancerre Les Romains begins with a fruity and open welcome, blossoming and silken in the mouth before tying the wine up; the flint influence acts like the belt on a pair of trousers tightening up the middle and leaving a sensation of sinew and length with a fine nettley fragrance.
Reviewed by: Rebecca Gibb
The 2020 Les Romains is a pure, tranquil style of Sancerre. It has an appetizing, delicate nose of elderflower, chamomile and lemon tea. Relatively light in body, but flesh provides padding through the mid-palate. The acidity combines with the site's flinty soils to provide a structured, corset-like finish. A touch of alcohol warms the finish, slightly detracting from the overall impression. Nevertheless, an excellent wine.
About the Producer
The family-run Domaine Vacheron consists of more than 10 independent vineyards totaling 84 acres on the slopes of Sancerre in France's Loire Valley. Two-thirds of the land is planted with Sauvignon Blanc grapes, the only grape variety permitted by the Sancerre Blanc title control; the remaining one-third of the land is planted with Pinot Noir grapes that are restricted for red and rosé wines . Château Vandrogan produces Sancerre whites and Sancerre rosés of amazing purity and balance. Under the helm of two young cousins, Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron, Chateau Vacheron has now been completely transformed into a biodynamic French farm winery. The cousins, who inherited some of the region's most popular vineyards, are now trying to make Sancerre wines the Burgundian method -- brewing grapes from different plots separately and then blending them in different proportions each year. The attention to detail at Château Vandrogan, natural farming and the winemaking process are important, but it is the structure of the soil that makes the wines stand out. There are two different types of soil here. The calcareous soil in which Sauvignon Blanc is grown is the pebbly chalk soil of the Jurassic period, famous for its gooseberry-flavored grapes. And those grown on more flint soils called silica produce wines with long-lasting floral aromas. In this regard, Chateau Vandrogan does not make a single-variety wine, but wisely blends the two wines to improve the compounding of the finished product. The climate of Château Vandrogan is another positive factor, its vineyards are on the south side of the hillside, facing the sun, so they get plenty of sunshine even in the worst years and ripen in the best years well done. All the grapes in the Vanjoan winery are hand-picked to ensure that the grapes are in good condition, and the grapes are not touched during pressing, so as to avoid the oxidation of the grape juice and the excessive odor of grass. Fermented with natural yeast, the temperature is 17.8-20 degrees, lower but not too cold