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Such a fabulous visit today with Olivier Rivain, an executive in sales for Domain Joseph Mellot for the USA.

Very interesting way we connected ... a few weeks ago I cut my visit to a prestigious California winery short in order to attend the "wines of Loire" event in New York.

Even though it was pouring rain and the venue was pretty far, I really wanted the opportunity to explore wines from the Loire, especially Sancerre.

Laura Masero from Joseph Mellot offered very good wine and intrigued my interest in visiting this region.

So today - a few weeks later - I was warmly greeted by sales manager Olivier Rivain right inside the restaurant where I had lunch (Joseph Mellot, one of the oldest and most historic in all of Sancerre). It is a museum of sorts where you can see ancient tools, hats the women wore, and more -- in addition to very good food and wine.

So we zipped off to the winery, stopping along the way to see one of the vineyards. Olivier bent down to pick up two stones - flint - to show how when you rub them together they create the aroma of gunflint  - an aroma you can smell and taste in wines of this terroir.

I also tasted a grape, very fat and juicy!

The winery is huge and very modern, as it makes over 2 million bottles a year. We tasted some of the juice just now fermenting in tank (the winery uses commercial yeast).

Then a visit to the tasting room where I had the opportunity to taste through their lines. They bought the Jean Michel winery based in Reuilly (I had ordered a glass of this pinot noir  at lunch) as Jean Michel had sons that did not want to take over the winery.

The favorite wines of the tasting were La Chatellenie 2011 with its notes of pineapple, Le Montarlet 2011 ... very tight and focused with intense minerals, and La Grand Chartelain 08 ... very exotic with pineapple and mango, yet the 'essence' of the fruit rather than the fruit itself so it is very sophisticated and elegant on the palate.

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