Sipping and Swirling in Sancerre

After a couple of days of climbing, our fingers and toes needed some rest. “Tendie toes” as we like to call them. Plus, there’s rain in the forecast, making for the perfect day to drive out to Sancerre.

About an hour and a half away from Fontainebleau is a small hamlet on a hill, Sancerre village, situated in the middle of several of France’s AOCs, the most notable AOC is… Sancerre. 

This region grows specifically Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir grapes, extremely similar to the New Zealand Marlborough wine region, but the terroir is very different. Made of flint and limestone, varying in different soils, affecting the flavor and mouthfeel of the wine.

Our first stop was at a family winery, Domaine Langlois, in Pougny. Not quite considered the Sancerre AOC, they are in Pouilly-Fumé AOC, located on the right bank of the Loire river. Our tour guide at the winery gave us an overview of the region, its terrior (which is why I can recite so much here) and how the winery came to be.

We walked the cellar floor, seeing where the oak barrels are aging the wine. We saw the stainless steel vats, another means of aging the wine – stainless steel giving it a more crisp finish, while oak gives it a rounder, spiced vanilla taste. We even met the vineyard’s owners – husband and wife and their son working that day. It was a Wednesday, a common workday for them and they were in the middle of blending two of the vats. We also saw their bottling machine, which bottles the wine and applies the label. It seemed like both a small scale and major operation for a family of five.

We learned that because they are not in the Sancerre region, they must purchase Sancerre grapes and still produce a wine due to demand. The Pouilly-Fumé region is not nearly as popular and a bit lower price. It seems as if to keep the lights on, they need a Sancerre wine, meanwhile they can sell their own region’s wine in combination.

We tasted several of their wines following the tour – a sparkling, three whites, and three reds. We selected two of their whites to take back with us.

Following the first tour, we go into the Sancerre village, driving through fields of vines up to the hilltop town, stuff of fairy tale inspiration. It’s an old, old village, with narrow cobblestone streets (no scratches on the car this time!) and homes, buildings all seemingly connected to one another – it feels like a maze.

It is noon, which we come to learn many places close for a lunch break, but we find one of the few spots open, a recommendation from our tour guide. A rich burger for Asa and a toast of tomato, ham, and local cream and cheese for myself. A hearty lunch to get us through the afternoon.

We wander the streets of the town to burn some more time, pop in for an impromptu tasting, but didn’t find any of the wine to our liking. It’s getting close to 2pm, so we head to our final stop of the day.

Just a few minutes drive outside the town of Sancerre is another small town, Chavignol. It’s nestled between steep hills of vines, with Sancerre looming off in the distance, it seems to be nothing but wine makers.

We reach our destination – Domaine Paul Thomas. Now, the first tour we did I was able to arrange easily through a travel site. It was all in English, a simple process to book and secure our time slot. However, a lot of the wineries are family-owned, the focus is primarily on making wine, not on tourism. So I learned that these wineries are open for tastings and visits, but you must arrange with them directly ahead of time.

So on Monday, I took a shot and sent several emails out to wineries I found on Google (Domaine Paul Thomas being one of them) to see if any would respond. Also, I used Google Translate to write to them in French, hoping it would help our chances, knowing there would be the ultimate exposure that we are just mere Americans with no French-speaking abilities. 

Sure enough, I got a response from Raphael, the wine maker himself of this winery. We coordinated the time and now here we are. Except “here” is at the bottom of a hill, in a dirt parking lot, and we’re receiving a lot of looks from nearby workers. 

We anxiously look at the map, look at the winery’s website, look at my email, grasping for anything that might give us a hint of what building nearby would be best to go to. Our choices are either: sheds, homes, or an office building. We walked around most all of them (except the homes, those felt safely off limits to us). 

After walking up, and then down, and then back up again, we walked down the hill to ask a worker for help. I type into Google Translate that we’re here for a tasting (thank you technology), and he has us follow him into one of the sheds, shouting up “Raphael!” Raphael doesn’t answer, but a small woman pokes her head down the spiral staircase with a “Bonjour!” And thankfully, a smile. She introduces herself and calls Raphael on her phone, while walking us into a small tasting room.

We come to learn that she’s actually Raphael’s wife, and she’s worked there since 1999. The winery was started by Raphael’s father, whose father was a wine maker as well and goat farmer. We start with the tasting of two reds, I immediately can taste a difference for lack of a better word in the “richness” of the wine based on what we had previously. The flavor tasted just a tad stronger.

Raphael shows up and we introduce ourselves, including the fact that we don’t speak much French. Worried he might be frustrated, he was very willing to do his best with English. His wife went back to work and we proceeded to have 45 minutes of wine tasting, story telling, and sharing experiences with him, learning of climate change’s effect on the wine region, his upbringing, Taylor Swift and LeBron’s impact on Sancerre popularity. 

From the tasting room, Raphael takes us on a tour of the rest of the facility. We see the huge vats, one in which his wife was inside of cleaning out, and they also are trying a new aging method using amphora, or clay pots. We sampled some directly from one of the pots and then the stainless steel vat, tasting the difference in the roundness between the two, otherwise similar wines. 

We sampled their rose, some additional whites, and a red all from the various vats. We couldn’t believe how much Raphael was willing to share with us, by this point it’s going on to 4pm. A whole two hours he had taken out of his work day to share with us his life’s work. It was so interesting to sample the wines back to back to compare and contrast how one type had a different taste or feel or acidity than the next. We felt so welcomed into their business and livelihood, it’s been the best wine experience we’ve ever had.

We purchased a few bottles – a red and two whites, and said “Au revoir!” With the sun shining on Sancerre. What a day we’ve had. A small road trip, some wine, some more wine, stories, and sightseeing in a completely new area of France. But tomorrow, we’re heading to a “familiar” place – Paris!