Sancerreand Pouilly-Fumé are among the best-known – and most exported – Loire appellations, so it was interesting to see how wines costing £19.99 or above from the two appellations would show. Ben Llewelyn set the scene: ‘Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé have long been bastions of great, terroir-driven Sauvignon Blanc,’ he said. ‘Their respective sides of the Loire river remain meccas for wine lovers, tourists and gastronomes from around the world. As a result the names have almost become brands, which sadly have not always quite lived up to the hype.’
We tasted 72 wines: 49 from Sancerre and 23 from Pouilly-Fumé. There were 14 wines from the 2022 vintage, 41 from 2021, 12 from 2020, three from 2019 and one each from the 2018 and 2017 vintages. Wines from the sunny, early 2022 and 2020 vintages often showing opulent fruit were a considerable contrast to the later and cooler 2021 vintage with some zesty wines – 2021 was one of the rare years when Sancerre was badly hit by spring frosts.
Llewelyn said: ‘2021 provided a racier style of wine with lower alcohol but taut, more electric fruit with great energy. Where this was combined with concentration it proved a magic combination, and perhaps points to more selection of vineyard sites as a way of achieving this in future.’ Unfortunately, there were also some unripe, over-acidic wines.
With 10 of the 14 top-scoring wines, the results showed that Sancerre is the more exciting appellation. Natalie Earl commented: ‘There seemed to be a lack of inspiration in the Pouilly-Fumé selection, with the most interesting ones either having some bottle age, or with noticeable youthful concentration.’ Over the years I have generally found Sancerre to be the more exciting appellation, especially when young. Overall, the most successful Pouilly-Fumés here did tend to have some bottle age. It is often said that they need more time than Sancerre to show their best.
Roughly half the wines had seen at least some oak – amix of barrels and larger wooden vats is becoming increasingly common. None of the 2022s had seen any oak, so for those that had, the greater maturation time in
