Jean Colin, Sancerre Blanc, 2024

This is a superb Sancerre that is complex, layered and refined - far out-doing any wine at this price-level from this appellation. I have worked with it for years and am delighted to be able to bring it to you now. 

The nose shows enticing ripe yellow and green fruit, laced with smoke and cashew nut flavours, matched on the svelte and medium-bodied palate. This is sheer joy to fans of Sauvignon Blanc and serves as a reminder to those who may have turned their back on the variety that this is indeed a serious grape, capable of very fine wines indeed. Like this one!

A great match to lots of typical white-wine-fayre, but really, really good with the local goats' cheese Crottin de Chavignol, or guinea fowl, or shellfish. Buttered Lobster? I'm on my way...

Jean Colin was the maternal grandfather of Eric Louis, who I met in a wine fair about ten years ago. His winemaking partner is Sophie, who has much better English than Eric (and far better English than my French) so it was from her that I first bought these wines. As it turns out, she has a fine knack of making wines for Irish palates (her own name is on the O'Brien's Loire wines!) and was able to understand exactly what I was looking to achieve for my customers: really great quality across a range of appellations. Now, that's a high bar for most parts of France, but in the Loire, there's a good deal of scope and space for pretty much anything you fancy: all colours, all sweetness levels, still, sparkling and fortified to boot. 

In this regard Sophie and Eric are outstanding custodians of the region's many subzones and grape varieties, making really excellent representations of each of the styles that they know and love themselves. Being a regular kind of chap, I wanted to get some regular sort of options and bought Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé at first, but then moved to their Vin de France offerings (declassified village-level wines often made from younger vines) and was both reassured and revitalised! Here was French wine that is vibrant and approachable and affordable, I thought. and since then, I have bought from as many villages as they produce, in red, white and rosé.

The estate itself, from where the Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Menetou Salon wines are sourced, is the same set of vineyards that were planted by Jean Colin and his wife Pauline before the Second World War. One of the things that I love about the story here is that after the war, access to resources and equipment was scarce, meaning that compromises were often the order of the day and when it came to finding vessels to ferment and age the wines, there was little to no oak available to them for anything like a reasonable price. They used acacia wood instead and they still do to this day! Funnily enough, it is because of this wood that their wines retain their elegance, fruit characteristics and finesse (sure, imagine big oaky Sauvignon... no thanks!).

So do join us with friends and say santé to Eric and cheers to Sophie as we continue to seek out the wonders of this very wonderful region: I really hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and even half as much as they have enjoyed making them!