J. de Villebois Sancerre Les Monts Damnes 2017
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James
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Winemaker Notes
Bright green-gold color. A powerful nose with white fruit notes, white peach, and pear. Sweet and supple, the palate evolves towards more vivacity, carried by a nice minerality and fresh lemon aromas.
This cuvée is greatly enjoyable with fish (Skate wing with capers), grilled prawns, carpaccio of scallops, and white meat dishes (curried turkey breast).
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Wine & Spirits
Joost de Willebois doesn’t sound like a French name, but his ancestors were, in fact, French, and when he settled in Touraine in 2004 to start a winery, he branded his domaine with the French spelling. He and his wife, Miguela, started with 22 acres in Mareuil-sur-Cher; they added Les Monts Damnés to the portfolio in 2012, farming their parcel with another winegrowing family. It’s a block of 35-year-old vines on the south and southwest-facing slopes of Monts Damnés, a steep hillside of Kimmeridgian marl considered one of Sancerre’s best. The 2017, fermented mostly in stainless steel, includes a small lot fermented in barrel; then the blend ages in stainless steel for six months. The wine offers a pure mineral essence, with fruit to cushion that amplified voice of the earth. Massive, luscious and tense, its flavors of fresh golden apples and green lime last for minutes after each sip, a beautiful wine that proves how grand sauvignon can be.
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Wine Enthusiast
From one of the most famous vineyards in Sancerre, known for its steepness, this wine is tightly textured, crisp and packed with green fruits. A strong mineral element in the wine is still impressively young. Drink from 2021.
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James Suckling
This is a white with sliced cooked pears with some lemons. It’s medium-to full-bodied with crisp acidity and a subtle, fruity finish.
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J. de Villebois is a family winery owned by Joost and Miguela de Villebois. Over the last 15 years, Villebois has become one of the leading Sauvignon Blanc producers in the Loire Valley with a unique range of Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir wines cultivated in its own vineyards. Villebois wines wine multiple awards year-in, year-out at French and international wine contests, confirming the excellence of the winery.
The success of the J. de Villebois wines is based on a highly skilled and dedicated team and their respect and knowledge of the terroir. They hold sustainable production high in their values. Rain water is held and reused, and the use of fossil fuels and pesticides is restricted. They truly cherish this priceless Loire territory!
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
Marked by its charming hilltop village in the easternmost territory of the Loire, Sancerre is famous for its racy, vivacious, citrus-dominant Sauvignon blanc. Its enormous popularity in 1970s French bistros led to its success as the go-to restaurant white around the globe in the 1980s.
While the region claims a continental climate, noted for short, hot summers and long, cold winters, variations in topography—rolling hills and steep slopes from about 600 to 1,300 feet in elevation—with great soil variations, contribute the variations in character in Sancerre Sauvignon blancs.
In the western part of the appellation, clay and limestone soils with Kimmeridgean marne, especially in Chavignol, produce powerful wines. Moving closer to the actual town of Sancerre, soils are gravel and limestone, producing especially delicate wines. Flint (silex) soils close to the village produce particularly perfumed and age-worthy wines.
About ten percent of the wines claiming the Sancerre appellation name are fresh and light red wines made from Pinot noir and to a lesser extent, rosés. While not typically exported in large amounts, they are well-made and attract a loyal French following.