Sancerre “Chêne Marchand” Domaine du Carrou
When the famous taster Pierre Bréjoux headed the I.N.A.O (the governing body that regulates wine in France), he observed that while tasting the greatest wines of Sancerre, “…one would like to have a throat as long as a swan’s neck.” His I.N.A.O never classified the vineyards of Sancerre, but if that ever happens, the chalky, sloping Chêne Marchand in the hamlet of Bué will be at the top of the list of its Grands Crus.
Dominique Roger has 0.37 hectares of forty year-old vines in Chêne Marchand, the crown jewel of his Domaine du Carrou. In most years, this tiny parcel yields fewer than 200 cases of round, elegant Sancerre.
Dominique Roger:
If you visit Dominique Roger (photo) at his Domaine du Carrou in Bué, don’t expect to spend a leisurely time indoors tasting the latest vintage and hearing all about the new Vaslin press or the Tronçais barrels from a famous cooper in Burgundy. Dominique Roger won’t try to impress you with his tools. But if you can keep up with him on a brisk climb through his immaculate, steep vineyards, you’ll learn a lot more about wine, and maybe find that you suddenly care a lot more about who grows it and where it comes from than you ever did before.
This wine:
This citrine-yellow wine has delicate nectarine, white peach and pink grapefruit in the nose, along with a suggestion of cassis and walnut, which on the palate turns to pistachio. There is fine minerality in harmonious balance with what Klaus Peter Keller calls “inner density” and lively acidity. This is sublimely elegant Sancerre.
As always at Moore Brothers, this elegant Sancerre was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers, so it tastes exactly the same as it tasted at Dominique’s home in Bué, when I drank it with the tiny goujons, gardons, and eperlans, – fresh from the Loire, that Danielle Roger dipped in milk and seasoned flour, then fried and served in heaping mounds on large heated plates.
I thank you again for your continued support of sustainable viticulture, and the stewardship of these special traditions.