Sancerre

Sancerre sits on a conical hill above the upper Loire, and the wine that carries its name is Sauvignon Blanc grown on three soil types around it: limestone caillottes, clay-limestone terres blanches and flint, which is the one producing the gunflint note tasters describe. Reds and roses from Pinot Noir are made in smaller quantity. Across the valley the village of Chavignol gives its name to Crottin de Chavignol, a small goat cheese, and the pairing of the two is the local ritual. The medieval village is steep and narrow with a surviving tower, the Tour des Fiefs, giving a view over the vineyard slopes to the river.

History

Sancerre lay in the lands of the Celtic Bituriges and later in Roman Aquitania, on the Roman road from Bourges to the river town of Gordona, and its name may come from a temple "sacred to Caesar"; in Carolingian times a small village clustered on the hillside around the church of Saint Romble, and an Augustinian abbey was founded at Saint Satur in 1034. A natural fortress 312 metres high, it passed to the counts of Champagne in 1152, who built a castle of six towers, among them the Tour des Fiefs, with a beacon on the Saint George tower seen 40 kilometres around; in 1190 Count Stephen I was among the first lords to abolish serfdom. The town twice repelled the English in the Hundred Years' War, and in the siege of 1572-1573 in the Wars of Religion its Huguenot people held out for nearly eight months against the king's Catholic forces, recorded by the minister Jean de Léry; in 1621 the king ordered much of the castle and walls destroyed, and the flight of Protestant merchants, especially after 1685, hurt the town's economy (Wikipedia, Sancerre).

What you'll find

• The vineyard slopes - three distinct soils in a bowl around the hill.
• The Tour des Fiefs - the surviving keep with a view over the Loire.
• Chavignol - the goat cheese village across the valley.
• The village lanes - steep streets, cellars and tasting rooms.

When to go

May to October; harvest is usually September and cellars are busy then. Tasting rooms keep long lunch closures. Autumn colour on the slopes is good.

Practical notes

The village is small and given largely to wine shops and restaurants. Streets are steep and parking is outside. Tasting appointments at smaller domaines need arranging ahead.

Nearby

Chavignol is a short drive; Bourges lies southwest.

Key facts