The Wines of Loire
Timed Online Auction, 1 - 8 May 2023
Session 1
About the SessionThe Loire Valley is a large region that follows the longest river of France. The Loire is an exceptional place to find lean, racy, white wines, including those of Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadet. Red varieties include Cabernet Franc, Gamay and Cot (Malbec), which produces herbaceous, rustic reds.
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About this Item
In the 14th century, Alphonse Mellot founded a tavern in Sancerre, specialising in local wines. In 1881, he was granted a licence to ship his wine throughout France and abroad; marking the beginning of a family business that has been passed down over 18 generations. Today, Domaine Alphonse Mellot, which stretches across the upper Loire Valley, is run by father and son, both named Alphonse Mellot. While Sancerre produces predominantly white wines, Mellot has an almost 50:50 split between white and red production. Farming their 47 hectares of vines organically and biodynamically, they are the benchmark for quality in Loire.
Provenance
Restaurant Mosaic
Critics Ratings
‘Mellot 2011 Sancerre La Demoiselle is irresistibly perfumed with diverse if hard to identify flowers, allied to lime and grapefruit that then serve for a lush, luscious, and refreshingly citric palate, underlain unmistakably by chalk stone, and laced with saliva-liberating sweet-saline savor of shrimp- and lobster-shell reduction. Like many a Mellot Sancerre, this will have at least superficially (as well as attractively) Burgundian aspects to it: above all hints of creaminess and sheer amplitude, not to mention the in this instance thankfully subtle influence of oak. But there is lift and primary juiciness here such as one would seldom encounter in any Burgundian Chardonnay, and the flowers and citrus – as well as this wine’s mineral dimensions – could among white Burgundies only be found in the best Chablis. I suspect that this will be worth following for at least half a dozen years.’ - David Schildknecht, Wine Advocate, 91 – 92+/100 (Jun 2012)
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