A Sancerre Vineyard Tour – Part 1

I love it when serendipity shows its wondrous face. The act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it always brings me joy. So I was thrilled while visiting Paris to receive an email from Le Cordon Bleu offering a Sancerre vineyard tour. The first bit of serendipity was that Sancerre, a dry Sauvignon blanc, has become my favourite French white wine. The second was that this world-renowned culinary arts school was offering this tour during my current visit. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to visit this beautiful corner of the Loire Valley and registered for the tour immediately.

I arrived bright and early at Le Cordon Bleu on a fresh June morning, joining about a dozen or so other participants. I discovered throughout the day that many of these were international students who were registered in one of the full-time programs at the school. Chatting with them over lunch gave me a bit of insight into the demands of these programs.

Ancient Lands

We were greeted by Karin from Guest Relations who was to be one of our guides for the day. She was especially excited to be leading this vineyard tour as Sancerre is the region where she had grown up and she was looking forward to sharing it with us.  It was during a discussion with her that I learned that the Loire Valley was the only area of France to never have been invaded by a foreign power. The language spoken there is still the original French. This made me wonder if it was similar to the Quebecois French as it is considered to be an ancient version of the language. Karin confirmed that this indeed is the case. She also said that another similarity is also found in the vivacious personalities of both peoples.

We boarded our bus and headed out of Paris, stopping along the way to pick up our second guide, Jean-Michel Deluc, the former head sommelier for the Hotel Ritz Paris, as we passed by his country home. A couple of hours and a nap later we arrived in the ancient hamlet of Chavignol, situated on the left bank of the Loire river. Our first stop was a visit to Domaine Henri Bourgeois where we were greeted by Jean-Christophe Bourgeois, son of the current owner of this 10th generation family owned and operated winery. As Jean-Christophe toured us through the property, his connection to the land and his passion for wine-making shone through in his quiet confidence.

This winery cascades down one the Chavignol hillsides, leveraging gravity to make the wine-making process more energy-efficient. The view from the top of the hill is idyllic. However this steep terrain makes tending to the vines and harvesting the grapes a back-breaking proposition. Thus, one of the hills is called Mont des Damnés – Hill of the Damned.

As we proceeded down into the village, we passed l’Eglise Saint André – the church of Saint Andrew. And alongside this ancient building was the most fascinating monument I’ve ever seen.

Jean-Christophe explained the local terroir to us. I was fascinated to learn that the wine made directly across the river, using the same grape variety, was of a different appelation – designation – Pouilly-Fumé. Looking out over the vineyards again, he also explained that the reason the landscape seemed to be made up of postage stamp-sized plots. You see, over time, as land was passed down from generation to generation, it was divided up among the children. Thus decreasing the plot size with each generation.

Continuing into the village, we ducked into the doors of a couple of nondescript buildings. Here we discovered beautiful wine cellars and tasting rooms with vaulted ceilings.

Old World Appellation

Our vineyard tour ended in the showroom with a wonderful tasting of a selection of ten different wines. It was here that I discovered that there is a difference in the labelling of old versus new world wines.  ‘New world’ North American wines are identified by their brand name and grape variety.  ‘Old world’ wines, on the other hand, are labelled by their appellation credentials. The ‘old world’ label relies on the appellation’s quality level rules and regulations to indicate what’s in the bottle. Therefore, you will never find the type of grape listed on an ‘old world’ label. This explains why I initially thought Sancerre was a type of grape. So glad I cleared that up!

And the last bit of serendipity: upon returning home I discovered that the Henri Bourgeois Les Baronnes Sancerre is available in my local liquor store, the LCBO. I’m delighted to be able to enjoy this favourite at home as well as during my visits to Paris! Give it a try and let me know what you think.

We ended the morning with a traditional meal of the local terroir a little further down the hill in the bistro of La Côte des Monts Damnés. This restaurant and the associated hotel are also part of the Bourgeois family. Chef Jean-Marc Bourgeois, brother to Jean-Christophe, operates both. Our menu included Salade de Chavignol and Pintade – Guinea Fowl – en sauce Sauvignon. We finished with a lovely Gâteau au jus de passion et coco craquant – Passionfruit Juice and Crunchy Coconut Cake.

Continue this wonderful vineyard tour by reading Part 2. Here you’ll visit the gorgeous Château du Rozet just across the river from Chavignol.

Domaine Henri Bourgeois  Chavignol, 18300 Sancerre, France

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