France · Loire · Upper Loire · Sancerre White · Still · wine-wine · 1148303
Lowest offer: 182.50 HKD (Buy)
Offers: 3 · Bids: 0
| Price / case | Vintage | Packing | Qty | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3636.60 HKD | 2022 | 12 x 75cl | 3 | hk / Hong Kong |
| 2190.00 HKD | 2023 | 12 x 37.5cl | 2 | hk / Hong Kong |
| 3762.00 HKD | 2023 | 12 x 75cl | 8 | hk / Hong Kong |
No active bids.
| Vintage | Packing | Offers | Bids | Market price | WA rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 6 x 1.5L | 0 | 0 | 94 | |
| 2019 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 2867.40 | 91 |
| 2019 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 1433.70 | 91 |
| 2020 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 3515.04 | 90 |
| 2020 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 1757.52 | 90 |
| 2021 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2022 | 12 x 75cl | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2023 | 12 x 37.5cl | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2023 | 12 x 75cl | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2023 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 |
Rating: 90 –90
The 2020 Sancerre La Moussière opens clear, intense and elegant on the nose, with fully ripe, yellow-fleshed stone fruit aromas (mango, peach) intertwined with refreshing phenolic and also algae notes. Full-bodied, intense and powerful on the palate, this is a mighty but elegant and finely refreshing Sancerre from Kimmeridigian marls. The finish is stimulatingly pure, fresh and saline. 14.5% stated alcohol. Diam cork. Tasted in January 2022.
Rating: 91 –91
The 2019 Sancerre La Moussière is quite rich, ripe and intense on the yeasty nose that represents a coolish, calcareous marl terroir with really old vines (roughly 60 years old). The fruit is reminiscent of ripe, yellow apples with just a discreet tone of gooseberries. Rich and intense on the palate, this is a powerful and, for now, quite creamy-textured Sancerre that lacks a bit of esprit, freshness and tension. The wine reveals fine tannins instead and might develop well over the years in the bottle but is definitely from a warmer, sunnier vintage. 14% alcohol. Tasted in November 2020.
Rating: 92 –92
The 2018 Sancerre La Moussière is clear and intense on the nose that needs some aeration to breathe and contextualize its detached, fully ripe and aromatic baby fruit and to exhibit its fascinating purity and finesse beyond. Full-bodied, intense and concentrated, this is a ripe, rich and still very fruity but complex Sancerre from 60-year-old vines in calcareous marl soils. The 2018 needs some years to become a real wine, though it tastes very attractive already today. Tasted in February 2021.
Rating: 90 –90
From Kimmeridgian marl soils, the 2017 Sancerre La Moussière offers a refreshingly pure, bright yet concentrated and substantial bouquet of wet earth, white and green fruits and some iodine. From an early, very low-yielding vintage, this medium-bodied wine is dense and tight but also fresh and transparent, with a stimulatingly clear, crisp and intense finish and drinks perfectly today. Tasted in January 2021.
Rating: 89 –89
Displaying white fruit and floral aromas along with lemon flavors, the 2015 Sancerre La Moussière is very clear and smoky on the nose, which indicates a picture-book Sancerre. Grown on kimmeridgian marl and limestone soils, La Moussière is the estate’s flagship cuvée insofar as it represents the Alphonse Mellot style in perfection. The wine is full-bodied, rich and round, a very intense and fruity, but also well-structured wine with firm grip and authentic character.
Rating: 90 –90
Mellot's intensely luminous rose-colored 2014 Sancerre La Moussière offers an intense and aromatic Pinot Noir aroma, smooth and ripe and with floral flavors. Round and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied and vinous Rosé with a well-integrated acidity. The finish is long and elegant and continues the red berry and cherry aromas. A characterful and perfectly balanced wine that is noble and solemn rather than racy or grippy.
Rating: 94 –94
La Moussière is the cornerstone of Alphonse Mellot and in its energy and precision it is not only an unmistakable Mellot but also a quality and stylistic level most producers don’t reach rudimentarily. The 2013 Sancerre La Moussière offers very pure, mineral and fresh fruit and floral aromas on the nose, which are neither green nor tropical, but so invitingly subtle, elegant and proofund that you don’t want to name the scents, just enjoy them. (I got fresh and minerally accentuated Riesling-like flavors of white peaches/nectarines and orange peels the second day…) On the palate, too, this is a pure, complex and powerful Sancerre of great personality, finesse and expression. Tightly woven and animating in its vibrant, citric limestone-minerality, this is a serious, fresh and persistent wine and surely one of the finest 2013 Sancerres I tasted for this report. You may enjoy it now and surely the next five or more years. It comes from 55-year-old vines rooted in calcareous marl soils (like the top wines Edmond and Géneration XIX) and was aged for 8-10 months in new demi-muids (one-third) and in vats (two-thirds). And yes, it’s a 2013, which is an excellent vintage for those who love purity and tension in wine.
Rating: 87 –87
Juicy pink grapefruit and ripe Persian melon effusively scent and saturate the broad, satiny palate of Mellot’s 2011 Sancerre La Moussiere, which however lacks the primary juiciness that – before bottling, anyway – characterized its single-site siblings. A suggestion of chalkiness adds interest to the sustained if slightly diffuse finish of this Sancerre likely to please those for whom the appellation is generally too prominently acidic, and to be best drunk within the next couple of years. I finally got to meet the two current (“Generation XVIII” and “... XIX”) Alphonse Mellots (all comments, intentions, or opinions I refer to as Mellot’s in what follows being attributable to the latter), whose roughly 130 acre estate – supplemented since 2005 by a more than 40 acre outpost, Les Penitents, in the Coteaux Charitois (also officially known as “Cotes de la Charite”) – has been farmed biodynamically since 1999, “before it was fashionable,” as Mellot points out. The estate boasts a high percentage of old vines, and those being replanted are selection massale, in recent instances planted to extremely dense (tighter than meter-by-meter spacing), which presupposes the estate norm of hand-harvest. In matters of vinification, too, no expense or attention to detail is spared, and I have seldom if ever before seen such a collection of the most expensive equipment and new wooden fermentors, foudres, and assorted smaller casks as fill the labyrinthine, multi-chambered –above as well as below-ground and in part art-bedecked – “cellars” chez Mellot. The Mellot name – having already some half century ago become associated with Sancerre across France and abroad thanks to negociant activities – has in the course of the past two decades gained a reputation in connection with estate bottlings that permit these to sell for prices scarcely any other Sancerres (and no Pouillys other than Dagueneau’s) can command. In the recent past I have found these wines very good and occasionally excellent, if often rather too obviously oaky, or opulent at the expense of refinement, not to mention – speaking of “expense” – overpriced. But the manifestly increased use of larger capacity barrels – along, perhaps, with other factors of vinification and elevage that I have not have fully grasped – seem in the two most recent vintages I tasted to have engendered in the Mellot Sauvignons a clarity, nuance, and preservation of primary juiciness to accompany the seamless richness that they have for some years displayed. Past Pinots – for which Mellot has an especially strong reputation – have also often struck me as exhibiting unfortunate manifestations of overreach, but here too, I was largely impressed with the 2010s I tasted this April. (Time precluded my tasting Mellot’s 2009 reds.) Picking of Sauvignon in 2011 began here already on August 20, with Pinots following already in the first days of September; in 2010, the start was in the second week of September; but none of the resultant wines could in the least be considered less than fully ripe. A bit more than half of the Mellots’ Sancerre acreage consists of – in fact, their estate is alternately named for – La Moussiere, a largely south-facing, ultra-stony Kimmeridgian site located just west of chalk-and-flint Les Romains – to which Mellots also dedicate a bottling – and equidistant from Sancerre and Bue. (Due to its volume, La Moussiere is the only Mellot Sauvignon that isn’t entirely fermented in wooden vessels of one or another sort, but instead ferments in stainless steel tanks before half of it is diverted to barrel.) The estate’s Edmond and Generation XIX bottlings originate in progressively older vines from prime portions of La Moussiere, the latter 87 years of age; and in red, a separate bottling is dedicated to the lieu-dit immediately above Moussiere – En Grands Champs – with its allegedly unique variation on Kimmeridgian limestone. Other holdings to which Mellots dedicate bottlings include La Demoiselle – flint-rich and steep; under the northwestern ramparts of Sancerre and very near their cellars – and Monts Damnes, whose fruits they combine with that of two other Chavignol lieux-dits in a bottling labeled “Satellite.” Although most Sancerre lovers consider Chavignol’s top sites hallowed ground, and although the Mellots have had their parcels of now old vines there for three generations, their first Chavignol-dedicated bottling was the 2008 Satellite that I praised in issue 190. And speaking of satellites, Emmanuelle Mellot has since 2007 farmed ten calcareous acres in appellation Pouilly-Fume, which are vinified at the family facilities in Sancerre and which I have previously reviewed under the “Alphonse Mellot” heading, but unfortunately did not get chance to taste from 2011 or 2010. (Incidentally, from 2008 Mellot essayed an experiment allegedly just for internal enjoyment in late harvest and Jura-style sous-voile elevage, which from cask – after having been racked once last year – was nothing short of fantastically complex and irresistible, blowing past any of the numerous attempts at this sort of thing – or attempts to turn accident into good fortune through oxidation – that I have previously encountered.) Various importers including Domaine Select, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799; Boutique Wine Collection, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954-6583; and Elite Wines, Lorton, VA; tel. (703) 339-8150
Rating: 88 –88
A portion of Mellot’s 2010 Sancerre La Moussiere was tasted still in tank when I visited in April (there are naturally very many bottlings of this huge assemblage), so I have edited my notes on a finished bottle to also reflect some impressions from tank. Delightfully and stimulatingly minty in aromatics as well as in accenting its juicy lime and grapefruit, this is unusually polished and pure – in fact, subtly creamy – for a Sancerre of its vintage, yet also vivacious; and if not enormously complex, it gains further invigoration thanks to a streak of chalk and to piquancy of citrus zest in its sustained finish. (The 2011 La Moussiere still resided in such disparate pieces when I visited in April that it was futile to attempt a note on how its assemblage would eventually taste.) I finally got to meet the two current (“Generation XVIII” and “... XIX”) Alphonse Mellots (all comments, intentions, or opinions I refer to as Mellot’s in what follows being attributable to the latter), whose roughly 130 acre estate – supplemented since 2005 by a more than 40 acre outpost, Les Penitents, in the Coteaux Charitois (also officially known as “Cotes de la Charite”) – has been farmed biodynamically since 1999, “before it was fashionable,” as Mellot points out. The estate boasts a high percentage of old vines, and those being replanted are selection massale, in recent instances planted to extremely dense (tighter than meter-by-meter spacing), which presupposes the estate norm of hand-harvest. In matters of vinification, too, no expense or attention to detail is spared, and I have seldom if ever before seen such a collection of the most expensive equipment and new wooden fermentors, foudres, and assorted smaller casks as fill the labyrinthine, multi-chambered –above as well as below-ground and in part art-bedecked – “cellars” chez Mellot. The Mellot name – having already some half century ago become associated with Sancerre across France and abroad thanks to negociant activities – has in the course of the past two decades gained a reputation in connection with estate bottlings that permit these to sell for prices scarcely any other Sancerres (and no Pouillys other than Dagueneau’s) can command. In the recent past I have found these wines very good and occasionally excellent, if often rather too obviously oaky, or opulent at the expense of refinement, not to mention – speaking of “expense” – overpriced. But the manifestly increased use of larger capacity barrels – along, perhaps, with other factors of vinification and elevage that I have not have fully grasped – seem in the two most recent vintages I tasted to have engendered in the Mellot Sauvignons a clarity, nuance, and preservation of primary juiciness to accompany the seamless richness that they have for some years displayed. Past Pinots – for which Mellot has an especially strong reputation – have also often struck me as exhibiting unfortunate manifestations of overreach, but here too, I was largely impressed with the 2010s I tasted this April. (Time precluded my tasting Mellot’s 2009 reds.) Picking of Sauvignon in 2011 began here already on August 20, with Pinots following already in the first days of September; in 2010, the start was in the second week of September; but none of the resultant wines could in the least be considered less than fully ripe. A bit more than half of the Mellots’ Sancerre acreage consists of – in fact, their estate is alternately named for – La Moussiere, a largely south-facing, ultra-stony Kimmeridgian site located just west of chalk-and-flint Les Romains – to which Mellots also dedicate a bottling – and equidistant from Sancerre and Bue. (Due to its volume, La Moussiere is the only Mellot Sauvignon that isn’t entirely fermented in wooden vessels of one or another sort, but instead ferments in stainless steel tanks before half of it is diverted to barrel.) The estate’s Edmond and Generation XIX bottlings originate in progressively older vines from prime portions of La Moussiere, the latter 87 years of age; and in red, a separate bottling is dedicated to the lieu-dit immediately above Moussiere – En Grands Champs – with its allegedly unique variation on Kimmeridgian limestone. Other holdings to which Mellots dedicate bottlings include La Demoiselle – flint-rich and steep; under the northwestern ramparts of Sancerre and very near their cellars – and Monts Damnes, whose fruits they combine with that of two other Chavignol lieux-dits in a bottling labeled “Satellite.” Although most Sancerre lovers consider Chavignol’s top sites hallowed ground, and although the Mellots have had their parcels of now old vines there for three generations, their first Chavignol-dedicated bottling was the 2008 Satellite that I praised in issue 190. And speaking of satellites, Emmanuelle Mellot has since 2007 farmed ten calcareous acres in appellation Pouilly-Fume, which are vinified at the family facilities in Sancerre and which I have previously reviewed under the “Alphonse Mellot” heading, but unfortunately did not get chance to taste from 2011 or 2010. (Incidentally, from 2008 Mellot essayed an experiment allegedly just for internal enjoyment in late harvest and Jura-style sous-voile elevage, which from cask – after having been racked once last year – was nothing short of fantastically complex and irresistible, blowing past any of the numerous attempts at this sort of thing – or attempts to turn accident into good fortune through oxidation – that I have previously encountered.) Various importers including Domaine Select, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799; Boutique Wine Collection, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954-6583; and Elite Wines, Lorton, VA; tel. (703) 339-8150
Rating: 87 –87
Mellot’s vineyard-specific white 2009 Sancerre La Moussiere – from a mixture of young and old vines whose fruit is vinified half in tank and half in new barriques – smells and tastes of ripe but tart pineapple and peach, augmented by bitterness of peach kernel, parsnip, and resin from barrel. Suggestions of surprisingly viscously palate-coating musk melon and nut oils well-up as this warms, but do not look here for sheer refreshment, as the overall impression and in particular the wine’s finish is subtly oily, bitter-sweet, and preserves a sense of thickness and opacity. I do not have the experience with older Mellot wines to be able to do more than speculate that this will be best drunk over the next couple of years. Forty year old Alphonse Mellot has now spent half his life running the domaine of his eponymous father and grandfather, in the process acquiring an enviable reputation, almost as much for his Pinots as for his Sauvignons. I regret – especially in view of my reservations (detailed in the tasting notes) about his approach – my not having had time to visit him this year, which explains the absence of a report from barrel on his 2009 reds or on all but two of his 2009 whites. (Incidentally, I do not recommend that any similarly skeptical tasters linger at Mellot’s web site, whose over-the-top wine descriptions outdo an already more than ambitious-enough reality, thus doing neither him nor us any favors.) Various importers including Domaine Select, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799; Boutique Wine Collection, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954-6583; and Elite Wines, Lorton, VA; tel. (703) 339 8150
Rating: 89 –89
The 2020 Sancerre La Moussière is an easygoing wine offering clean, pure flavors of pineapple, grass and pear. It's full and rounded with a whopping 15% alcohol, which no doubt has boosted the texture and palate weight.