23 January 2007

TN: Sancerre seconds

JP Balland 2001 Sancerre (Loire) – Mature, showing grass and crystallized limestone aromas and a pleasant, medium-high acid structure. This sits in the glass all shy and delicate, but in response to food it wrestles and amplifies until it’s quite a substantial beverage. Drink up, for sure, but this is a fine middle-of-the-road Sancerre in the prime of its adulthood. (12/06)

JP Balland 2003 Sancerre (Loire) – Sludgy, thick gooseberry and saccharine (not to imply the wine’s sweet; it’s a textural thing). The flavors are there, but nothing else that differentiates wine from de-acidified fruit juice is, and in the glass it just sits there, overweight and lifeless. This is the very definition of a “dead fruit” wine. (12/06)

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