Blind Tasting Sancerre vs. White Graves
By Marisa D'Vari | August 15th, 2010 | Category: Bordeaux, Loire, News, Wine reviews | No Comments »
What better way to spend a summer weekend than by blinding tasting two whites and out of all the whites in the world, analyzing their variety and origin?
Of course, this sort of Sherlock Holmes antics is familiar to students in the Master of Wine program. Typically I ask wine retailers that wine be sent to me blind (i.e. wrapped in a bag so I can’t see the year or variety), at different price points, so I may puzzle it out.
For a summer picnic, my friend and I tasted these two wines, having no idea they shared a grape in common. Though we correctly guessed the vintages 08 and 09, and the fact both were old world (by virtue of the subdued fruit, high mineral content) they felt like they could be a number of high acid, cool climate whites.
On first sniff, it could well have been a Vernaccia or Verdicchio from Italy.
Because of the extreme minerality of both the wines, Sauvignon Blanc does not leap to mind the way it would from a New Zealand SB.
And finally, because it was actually an accident they were being drunk together (sometimes I alert the wine store clerk to send me wines to taste in pairs) at the time of the tasting I had no idea they shared a varietal.
In the end, the key differences between the wines is this: the Sancerre, grown on a specific plot of limestone hills facing the Eastern sun, gives a very chalky limestone wine, with very faint fruit and marked minerality and acidity. Now the Graves was also quite mineral (remember the Graves soil is stony pebbles) yet one could detect a faint amount of white grapefruit. Also, because this Graves was a blend of Muscadelle and Semillon, it was slightly fatter, less lean than the Sancerre.
Both were delicious and from my favorite importers, Kermit Lynch (Graves) and Louis Dressner (Sancerre).
2008 Sancerre La Garenne
Very tight, almost full-bodied Sauvignon Blanc with intense limestone-chalk-mineral palate and long, satisfying stony finish.
2009 Chateau Giraud-Lacoste
Delicate and slightly floral, this is a well structured, mineral-rich wine with a hint of bitter grapefruit on the finish.
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