QUINCY

The tasting room at Villa Quincy

Although nearby Sancerre gets many wine visitors each year, most people drive past Quincy without a second thought, which is a shame as it is worth at least a quick visit and a tasting.   Quincy has been one of my favourite white wines for about ten years but I too had never visited it until last month.   With a weekend to kill in Bourges, I at last made the 20 km trip on the D2076 road.

Quincy was, surprisingly considering its status today, the second ever appellation created after Chateauneuf-du-Pape, in 1936.  Apparently it has been known as a wine area since the twelfth century.  The soil is mainly sandy gravel with some flint on top of clay and chalk.   It only produces white wines and it only uses one varietal – Sauvignon Blanc.  It is in the Loire Valley just west of the cathedral city of Bourges and south of Vierzon.  It has another small neighbouring appellation in Reuilly which you can visit on the same trip.

The centre of Quincy village

A chateau in Quincy

The village itself is small but does boast a relatively new small wine museum and tasting room at the Villa Quincy in the centre of the village and open from April to December except on Tuesdays.   There is a small fee of three euros for the museum and tasting.  This is well worth a visit, although the first wine they offered us was the one by Jean-Charles Borgnat that is available in the UK at Majestic!   There is a great selection of wines to buy including those by the better producers such as Tatin and Wilk.    The tasting room won’t tell you the best wines but they will point out those that are minerally or fruity or floral according to your taste.   It is interesting to try and buy a few different ones and understand the difference that subtly different terroir and wine making can bring to the taste of wine.  The Villa Quincy also sells the wines of neighbouring Reuilly and local products such as honey.

Bruno Lecomte quincy

Quincy wines vary from rather basic Sauvignon Plonk to some that rival the more famous Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, but are usually cheaper at under ten euro.  They are always very dry and often taste of refreshing grapefruit to my taste buds, but you might recognize this as gooseberry.  Overall I find the above average Quincy as very appealing and it makes a nice aperitif wine or something to go with Rabbit Terrine, Chicken, Fish or Goat Cheese.  An earlier blog post describes even how I enjoyed one with a steak!

The Bruno Lecomte wine pictured here is one of the ones I bought at Villa Quincy. Tasted it the other night and it was rather good – lovely bouquet and taste with grapefruit to the fore with a hint of rustic goats cheese in the background.  Fruity but some complexity and high refreshment factor – a good Sauvignon Blanc.  

A fine bottle of Quincy

An attractive bottle of Quincy

Museum Exhibit

TonghamTaster’s French Wine Tasting Course – week 9 Loire Sauvignon Blanc Whites

The 12 month on-line course to help you learn about French wines - Top tips on how to get value when buying them - Reasonably priced up-to-date recommendations of what to buy and try in the UK - Bringing you the best of Tongham Village Hall wine tastings.

INTRODUCTION
Sauvignon Blanc is one of the top grape varieties in the world because of the wines produced with this varietal in the Loire Valley. This week we cover these great wines which are still amongst the best, despite the efforts of New Zealand and others to topple them.

Tongham Taster in Sancerre 2008

LOCALITY
The upper Loire, sometimes called Le Berry or the Central Vineyrads, around Vierzon and Sancerre produces the most famous Sauvignon Blanc wines of the Loire. Vierzon has the reputation of being one of the ugliest towns in France but Sancerre is one of those beautiful hilltop towns they seem to have everywhere in France. This area is also famous for goats cheese such as Chavignol, so no surprise that this is one of the top food pairings with this wine. The area of Touraine near Tours also produces some good value Sauvignon Blanc wines.


The vineyards and town of Sancerre

VARIETALS
The grape we are covering this week is just the Sauvignon Blanc varietal, apart from a few notes about the roses from the area which are produced from red grapes. Sauvignon Blanc produces a direct, easy to appreciate style of wine that is always dry– hence its popularity.

THE WINES
There is really just one main style of Sauvignon Blanc in the Loire; a very dry, fruity white without any oak. The world famous AOCs producing this style are of course Sancerre and Pouilly Fume. These two wines are produced almost opposite each other on each side of the Loire. The latter is not to be confused with Pouilly Fuisse which is a wine produced from Chardonnay grapes from relatively nearby Macon in Burgundy. The Sancerres of Pouilly Fume can be the greatest expressions of Sauvignon Blanc in the world when from a top producer in a good year. One of the joys of tasting Sancerre in the region is to discover that they do not all taste the same and experiencing the subtly different tastes that come from thev slightly different soils – different combinations of clay and limestone and different amounts of flint. Over the years I have grown to love the wines from Alphonse Mellot, Serge Laporte, Didier Dagueneau and may others. The best are wonderfully complex but still refreshing. I first visited Sancerre in 1981 and have been back many times over the years.

The other AOCS in the upper Loire that produce this style of Sauvignon Blanc wine are Menetou Salon which is next door to Sancerre to the west, plus Quincy and Reuilly which are even further west clustered just south of Vierzon. Their wines are often good value but expect to pay high prices for good Menetou Salon producers like Domaine Philippe Gilbert or Henri Pelle. Over the years I have grown vary fond of the wines from Quincy with their often vary grapefruity taste.

Way to the west of Sancerre, in the middle Loire, is the AOC of Touraine and this area also produces some good value Sauvignon Blanc but with a subtly different taste due to the terroir. I would have to admit that I tend to be disappointed in them but suspect that is just me.

Inside the winery of Domaine Philippe Gilbert

A more unusual style of Sauvignon Blanc that some producers have experimented with is an oaked style. Examples are Domaine Philippe Gilbert’s Les Renardieres wines in Menetou Salon and Alphonse Mellots Cuvee Edmond in Sancerre. If you are a serious wine drinker, you really should try these and I have seen both available in the UK over the years.

Although nothing to do with Sauvignon Blanc I wish to mention the Roses of the region. I tend to think that Pinot Noir can produce some of the best Roses in the world and although some of the Sancerre Roses can be disappointing, the rose from Domaine Philippe Gilbert in Menetou can be really excellent. I also enjoy the Gris de Gris that Valerie Renaudat produces in Reuilly. It is a Vin Gris (something which we would call a blush wine) from Pinot Gris grapes and again is rather pleasant.

Sancerre Town Square

THE TASTE
Loire Sauvignon Blanc wines tend to have a dry, crisp taste with notes of gooseberry, citrus, grass and even cats pee! There is often also a distint flinty minerally taste that comes from the terroir.

TOP TIPS
• The wines of Menetou Salon, Quincy and Reuilly can be good value alternatives to Sancerre and Pouilly Fume.
• Look out for one of the oaked Sauvignon Blancs if you want to impress a wine buff!
• Don’t buy cheap Sancerre or Pouilly Fume, ie under £12 a bottle – it is almost always a disappointment.

HOMEWORK
For your homework this week you need to buy and try any Loire Sauvignon Blanc. You might want to try one of my recommendations below:

Waitrose – Domaine Naudet 2008, Sancerre – about £13.

The hilltip town of Sancerre, August 2003

Or if feeling flush, Waitrose - Domaine Henry Pellé, Clos des Blanchais 2007 Menetou-Salon – about £16.
or Sainsburys – Alphonse Mellot La Moussierre, Sancerre, about £16.
Or if on a budget – Majestic, La Grille Touraine Sauvignon 2009 Paul Buisse, about £7. Majestic always have an interesting selection of more expensive Loire whites so you might wish to try some of theirs such as the Domaune Vacheron at about £17
You might also consider a trip down to Les Caves des Pyrenes in Guildord to see their selection. It normally includes Henri Pelle from Menetou.

A good reference guide

FOOD PAIRINGS
The Loire Sauvignon Blancs make a great aperitif wine for drinking on their own. After a hard day I like nothing better than a glass of good Sancerre, Pouilly or Menetou. Very refreshing!
The classic food pairing is goats cheese.
Other food pairings would include sea food and fish but don’t stop there, try chicken dishes such as lemon chicken or chicken Marengo as well.

COMING SOON
Next week we move on to the Languedoc-Roussillon area of Southern France and some of its great value red wines.

If you missed the early weeks of this course, it is not too late to catch up. Just click on the French Wine Course link at the top of this page.