2011 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre Rouge Belle Dame

Soon after malo, the Vacherons’ 2011 Sancerre rouge Belle Dame displays a winsome nose of blood orange, dark cherry, and dark chocolate, all of which translates into a generously sappy palate to which red meat juiciness lent mouthwatering savor. This promisingly polished and richly endowed Pinot should prove quite a success, though it’s such early days given this estate’s regimen of elevage and release (for more on which consult my note on the 2010), that one can only speak guardedly and without attempting further prognostication. (I did not taste a corresponding Les Marnes, and on an early look, their generic 2011 red seemed in too uncooperative and awkward a phase to be worth writing more about.) I wrote extensively in Issue 190 about recent developments at their domaine, and this year the dynamic duo of young cousins Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron filled my ear and my tasting glass with so many tales of new plantings, projects, and bottlings; insights into terroir and technique; and well-considered evolutions in approach, that I can only manage to touch on a few of these in the introductory lines and tasting notes which follow. Suffice it to say for keeping in view the big picture, that the nexus of human talent and vinous quality that is Domaine Vacheron keeps increasing in brightness and intensity (although one can’t help noting that the prices keep pace), while approaches in the vineyards become increasingly meticulous and labor-intensive, and those in the cellar emphasize – always in an experimental spirit – gentler fermentative extraction for Pinot and larger-sized, increasingly neutral barrels for both reds and whites. In particular, the use of upright wooden fermentors for aging Sauvignon as well – an approach only begun (as I described in issue 190) with certain wines of the 2009 vintage – has been greatly extended. Filtration has been virtually eliminated – entirely so for vintage 2010 – a development made possible, say the Vacherons, by the greater insights and watchfulness they now bring to bear on white wine elevage, which in any event has long been unusually leisurely at this address. Predictably placing great emphasis on what they take to be the fruits of prolonged biodynamic cultivation, the Vacherons point out that the grapes they began harvesting on September 24, 2010 were ripe and their acidity majority tartaric, observations that are certainly corroborated in the glass. Their claim to have largely avoided and otherwise sorted out any less than perfect fruit in 2011 – when they began harvesting three full weeks earlier than in 2010 – is similarly backed up by the gustatory evidence. The past two years have, as Jean-Laurent Vacheron notes, been characterized by “harvesting the Sauvignons a bit earlier, for freshness, and risking leaving the Pinots to ripen further and be picked last. With Pinot,” he adds, “we don’t pick apart any bunches on the sorting table; if there’s any rot the whole bunch gets eliminated,” a rigor that – when combined with later, riper picking – dovetails with their enhanced retention of whole berries and with gentler extraction, approaches that have taken to a new level of refinement (and, I suspect, of harmonious aging potential) what were already widely considered the best of their appellation – and if you don’t believe me, just compare the Vacherons’ 2010 reds with those of almost any other grower’s from that challenging Pinot vintage! (My notes on the nature of individual sites as well as on elevage were generally taken in connection with tasting the 2010s, so look for them incorporated into the applicable 2010 vintage tasting notes.) A Jon-David Headrick Selection (various importers), Asheville, NC; tel. (828) 252 8245; also, a Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93