2022 Domaine Vacheron - Sancerre Rouge Belle Dame (750ml)

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Burgundy isn’t the only French address for impressive Pinot Noir. If you haven’t yet sampled a well-made Sancerre rouge, you’re missing out on one of Sancerre’s best kept secrets!

Few estates have worked harder to elevate Sancerre’s standing than Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron. The Loire was previously industrially farmed and machine-harvested, and the soils needed all the help the Vacheron family could muster. After earning biodynamic certification in 2005, they began bolstering the quality of their soil with hand-made composts.

There are a few other secrets to Vacheron’s success. Aside from beginning to manually harvest their fruit, one of the secrets was an investment in upright wooden tanks for their reds to age in; this led to a huge gain in the texture of their Pinot. Vacheron typically ages their wines far longer (1 or 2 years) than many in the region. The Vacheron’s other secret is their shockingly low yields. Severe sorting is critical for wines of distinction, and one can imagine how hard it is to sacrifice a meaningful pile of fruit after fighting all year for it.

The Vacherons’ soils are full of silex, aka. flint — that glassy, tough impurity that’s often nestled in limestone. Our ancestors crafted some of their first tools from these; humanity owes a great deal to silex!

The Sancerre Rouge “Belle Dame” bottling is a special bottling crafted entirely from this precious silex soil. Its fruit macerates longer and it ages a year longer than the standard Vacheron Sancerre Rouge. A harmonious, pure, and delightfully spicy Pinot Noir.