The other night, a customer walked into the store and brusquely stated, “I’d like two bottles of the Sancerre.” I had just finished restocking some, so to my relief, I knew where they were kept – but which Sancerre?
“We have a few of them. Do you know which one?” I asked.
“The white one,” he replied.
Errr…that didn’t help me. Luckily, Moore Brothers keeps an electronic record customer’s purchases, which comes in handy when someone doesn’t know what they’ve been drinking. So I was able to quickly look him up and find the exact bottle of Sancerre he wanted.
There was something in the way the customer asked for the Sancerre that got my attention. He thought highly of this wine; it was special. I had been researching Beaujolais at the time, but now all of a sudden I wanted to know all about Sancerre. I would buy a bottle or two later in the week.
The next day was my lucky day – the store had the 2006 Dominique Roger (Domaine du Carrou) Sancerre open for tasting. As a novice, I struggle with the knee-jerk reaction of simply liking or disliking a wine when I taste. I immediately liked this. It was delicate, and went down nice and easy. I take a breath – “Stop drinking, start tasting!,” I tell myself. I try to focus on the wine in my mouth – how it feels, how it goes down and the taste that lingers during and afterwards. It was light and citrusy.
Although my much more knowledgeable colleagues have always been very open to my thoughts and numerous questions, I find myself somewhat “tasting shy” at the store. I prefer to taste alone. Again, my lucky day – a bit of the Sancerre was left over – and I got to take it home.
My general routine has been to sit down at my kitchen table, dim the lights (yeah…it’s a date. I have dates with wine these days), and focus on the taste. There was something else behind the citrus. Apples? Yes, I think that’s it. Definitely more citrus though. There was something with the citrus that was familiar. What was that? Grapefruit! Yes, definitely grapefruit.
I often question my palate. Am I just making this stuff up? I ran to my computer, went on the Internet, and looked up Sancerre. There were lots of references to citrus. Eventually I did find a reference to apples and grapefruit, apparently the latter being very characteristic of the Sauvignon Blanc grape from which which Sancerre is made.
I finished the bottle. It was good. A sense of satisfaction swept over me. What a great date.
Download the tasting note for this wine in PDF format