Wine Reviews

One of the most beautiful Sancerre Rouge wines you will taste this decade. This wine is refined and elegant, with pristine fruit flavors and polished tannins that create a harmonious palate expression. Deeply layered and satisfying, with expressive loamy earth richness, ripe and fresh dark berry fruits even at eight years of age (because the wines are made in a reductive style), but here the reduction is not as evident, though the freshness is. Red apple-skin tannins and brown spices, with notes of black truffle charcuterie only begin to hint at the complexity in this royally noble red wine. If you can get your hands on bottles, you’ll be blown away. Génération Dix-Neuf Rouge comes from one hectare (about 2.5 acres) of Pinot Noir planted in 1931, making it the older-vine sibling to En Grands Champs. The parcel lies at the heart of the estate on Saint-Doulchard Kimmeridgian marl and limestone; it is organically and biodynamically farmed, hand-harvested and sorted twice. The name honors the Mellot family’s 19th generation.100% Pinot Noir. Abv. 14.5%

Cuvée Edmond is selected from six hectares—about 15 acres—of La Moussière’s oldest Sauvignon Blanc vines, ranging from 40 to 87 years old. The densely planted, south-southwest-facing parcel lies on Saint-Doulchard marl over upper Kimmeridgian limestone and is farmed organically and biodynamically, with the fruit harvested by hand. This is one of the most focused, polished, and structured of the wines, with fragrant stony and flinty mineral notes mingling with ripe orchard and stone fruits, a hint of vanilla, and rich, satiny textures, unfurling with creamy acidity and inching into underripe peach and quince paste, notes of slivered almonds and candied minerality on the lengthy, medium-bodied finish. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Abv. 14.5%

This Pouilly-Fumé is focused, mineral-rich, with tension and energy. The wines are made in a reductive style, so give them a good decanting. Slivered almonds, flint, wet stones, and elegant citrus and fruit mingle with apple and pear notes. The wine has great texture, good fruit weight, and finishes long and mineral-accented. Now in its 19th generation, Alphonse Mellot is a benchmark Sancerre estate, producing biodynamically farmed Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir of uncommon depth, precision, and character. Alphonse Mellot farms approximately 60 hectares, equivalent to about 148 acres. His flagship La Moussière vineyard accounts for more than 30 hectares—roughly 74 acres. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Abv. 13.0%

Positively stunning, this Sancerre is polished, with wonderfully rich and velvety textures, bursting out of the glass with orchard fruit and flinty minerals balanced by stark and racy acidity that brings a coolness factor, and lends itself to exceptional length, with a host of smoked almonds and wet river stone character, finishing with salinity and a bit of textural grip, like biting into a fresh green apple. The finish keeps going, revealing some of the reduction this producer is known for, in the form of smoky, flinty minerality. Just remarkable. La Demoiselle Blanc is considerably more site-specific: it comes from just half a hectare—about 1.2 acres—of Sauvignon Blanc planted in 1951 near the summit of Sancerre. The biodynamically farmed vines grow in deep flinty clay strewn with silex, accounting for the wine’s characteristically firm, smoky and saline profile; everything is harvested by hand. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Abv. 14.5%

Mellot’s flagship Sancerre, La Moussière, comes from 25 hectares (62 acres) of Sauvignon Blanc planted on the southwestern flank of Sancerre. The vines average 55 years old and grow in Saint-Doulchard Kimmeridgian marl and limestone; they are certified organic and biodynamic, with the fruit harvested by hand into small crates. It’s incredible, and in 2025, the wine is tropical-fruit focused with these elegant honeysuckle notes, beautifully silky and weighty on the palate, underscored by clean, crisp acidity and finishing with tremendous length, saline minerality, and slivered almonds with a slick tangerine oil richness. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Abv. 14.5%

One of the most elegant Sancerre wines you’ll try from this producer, with a soft core of tropical fruit character, showing off the warmer vintage, along with exotic honeydew melon and kiwi notes. Satiny, silky, layered with fleshy fruit laced with honeysuckle notes, even a hint of wildflower honey. Very pretty, with mouthwatering, racy acidity. Les Romains comes from a 1.2-hectare parcel—just under three acres—of Sauvignon Blanc planted in 1951. Unlike La Demoiselle’s flinty clay, this site places flint over limestone; the cuvée takes its name from the remains of a Roman road crossing the biodynamically farmed vineyard. The grapes are harvested by hand into small crates. Now in its 19th generation, Alphonse Mellot is a benchmark Sancerre estate, producing biodynamically farmed Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir of uncommon depth, precision, and character. Alphonse Mellot farms approximately 60 hectares, equivalent to about 148 acres. His flagship La Moussière vineyard accounts for more than 30 hectares—roughly 74 acres. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Abv. 14.5%

Docker Hill is a site high atop the Pacific coast, sitting above the fog line, and you can almost feel the intensity of the growing season and the cold Pacific winds that whisk through the vines. This one has energy and tension, and sea spray salinity in the bouquet, married to red cherry fruit and cedarwood. Medium-bodied, with a crunchy cherry-and-apple-skin texture supporting the lush fruit character. Deeply satisfying and deserving of a place at the dinner table no matter what the cuisine. 100% Pinot Noir. Abv. 13.5%.

Emerald Ridge Vineyard is an eastern ridge in the heart of the Green Valley AVA, where vines planted in well-draining Goldridge soils produce grapes that yield a sweet-spiced, blue-red-fruited, concentrated Pinot Noir with soft, satiny tannins and a core of stony minerality and zesty blood orange acidity. 100% Pinot Noir. Abv. 14.1%.