Very light garnet with wide thinning edges. Smokey, wilted floral, sharp and pungent, rife with strawberries on their last day and fresh leafy greens from the garden. A nose so brilliant, so full of dusty flowers and spice–all dancing in front of a visible caricature of acid.
A red Sancerre, huh? Betcha didn’t see THAT one coming. Just a Loire Pinot Noir–nothing fancy–we’ve all loved the CF, now why not the PN? Round an full and edgily elegant, I can barely pull my nose out of this thing.
In the mouth, buttery, wet-paper strawberry make a heady appearance before those acids come crashing in with shocking green tannin hot on their heels. It never dissuades, however: the fruit so sumptuous, so full, the acid so razor-sharp, the tannins so completely manageable even in their intensity, with the fruit still doing cartwheels off them far into the finish.
You taste a wine like this and you get really depressed about all of those miserable $30 pinots you’ve consumed over the years. You will never go back to those flabby, character-less syrah-clones and their black cherry and rootbeer and finishes heavy on frosting and light on bark. This, my friends is what 30-dollar Pinot should taste like. Truly a game-changing wine.
2014 DOMAINE VINCENT GAUDRY Vincengétorix Sancerre Loire ASC 12.5
Stephen McConnell 