Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Generation XIX Dix-Neuf 2019

The Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Generation XIX Dix-Neuf 2019 is a beautifully crafted Sauvignon Blanc from the historic vineyards of Sancerre, France. This wine, made by Alphonse Mellot, showcases the winery’s dedication to organic and biodynamic viticulture, ensuring the highest quality in every bottle.

The wine has a striking pale gold yellow color with a light green sheen. It is brilliant, lively, and clear, presenting a mature appearance. On the nose, it offers a mature and fresh aroma with finely expressed lemon-scented honeydew, hints of menthol, acacia, and dried fruits. There are also notes of St George’s mushrooms and iodized minerals. When you open the bottle, you might catch hints of beeswax, gingerbread, and menthol lemon.

On the palate, this Sancerre is full, fresh, and rich with a virile taste. It starts with a mellow acidity and evolves into flavors of toasted nuts. The finish is rich and explodes with freshness, accentuating the iodized mineral, Muscat, and boxtree notes. There is a slight plant bitterness mixed with a long-lasting quality. As the wine ages, it should develop terpenic aromas with hints of white truffles on a honeyed hazelnut background.

This powerful and fine wine balances complexity and freshness, making it an excellent choice for a variety of pairings. Enjoy it with raw or baked oysters, mussels in thyme, clams in saffron soup, fried sand eels, Norway lobsters with peas, or Loire pike in salty pastry. It also pairs well with pink garlic monkfish fillet, fillet of sea bass in basil, calf’s sweetbreads kebab, young rabbit tails with autumn mushrooms, fresh or blue goat’s milk cheeses, almond biscuits, or a cold apricot tart.

Serve this wine at 10 to 12°C as an aperitif or on its own, and at 12 to 14°C with meals.

The grapes for this wine come from 87-year-old vines with an average yield of 45 hl/ha. Harvested by hand, the grapes are carefully sorted and transported to the press using a conveyor belt. The vineyard spans 6 hectares, with vines planted at a density of 10,000 vinestocks per hectare. The soil is composed of Saint-Doulchard marls, and the subsoil dates back to the Upper Lusitanian to Portlandian periods. The vines are pruned using the simple Guyot method and are trained using organic and biodynamic practices.

Wine-making involves sequential pneumatic pressing and static settling at temperatures below 10°C for about 48 hours. The wine ferments in 900-litre truncated vats and ages on fine lees for about 10 to 12 months, depending on the year. Only about 6,000 bottles of this exceptional Sancerre are produced, all bottled on the estate.

The Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Generation XIX Dix-Neuf 2019 has received high praise from critics. It earned 93 points from Wine Advocate, highlighting its deep, complex, and subtle nose with flinty, yeasty, and delicate phenolic notes intertwined with ripe and elegant stone fruit aromas like mangos. On the palate, it is fresh, round, and elegant with a medium to full-bodied texture, minerally tension, and a saline finish. This wine is already showing great maturity, making it a standout choice for any wine lover.