Domaine Alphonse Mellot Sancerre "La Demoiselle" red 2019 (3 bottles)

PRESENTATION OF DOMAINE ALPHONSE MELLOT
+ ALL ITS OTHER WINES IN STOCK

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Domaine Alphonse Mellot Sancerre La Demoiselle 2019 red wine

Guide Bettane+Desseauve 2020 (August 2019) : 95/100. A lady one wishes to ask for her hand, with its very pure burlat cherry accents, an immense floral return, and silky tannins that are very long. The flint terroir ensures the final elevation.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (Stephan Reinhardt, January 2022) : 93/100. Cultivated on deep, flinty clay formations, the 2019 Sancerre La Demoiselle opens with a deep, concentrated and remarkably flinty bouquet reminiscent of gunpowder but also yeasty and oaky nuances. Severe and dense but also enormously tensioned on the palate, this is a serious, sustainable, very elegant, refined and expressive Sancerre with crystal-clear fruit on the knife's edge but also texture and fine tannins. A beautiful wine to have with food, even meat. I love this one because it is tight and tensioned, always salty and grippy and, last but not least, so very well balanced. 13.5% stated alcohol. Diam cork. Tasted in January 2022.

Technical sheet written by the domaine :

We are dealing with flint clay, right on the eastern peak of Sancerre. Here the stone is piled in a dense, ringing, and stumbling layer due to its abundance.

This soil is not familiar to Pinot Noir, and its expression here is very original.
The cherry becomes kirsch-like in contact with the stony mineral, with peppery notes reminiscent of Côte-Rôtie. A true surprise for this great grape variety, Pinot Noir.

Tasting notes :
Dense ruby color, the nose is marked by the terroir.
The flint clay expresses itself with smoky notes and kirsch cherries, all melted into extremely silky tannins.

Food pairing : Poached eggs with porcini sauce, wild duck with spices, pears with cinnamon.

Serving temperature : 14 to 16°C for the pleasure of tasting and up to 18°C with food.

Harvest :
La Demoiselle is made from a 52-year-old parcel.
The harvest is done in small crates of 25 kg. All grapes were sorted using a vibrating table followed by a sorting table and transported destemmed into the tanks by conveyor. The maceration takes place in a conical wooden tank of 60 hl.

Average yield: 26 hl/ha.
Surface : 1 ha 20.
Grape variety : Pinot Noir.
Exposure : South-Southeast.

Geology :
Soil : flinty clay formation.
Subsoil : Upper Cretaceous.

Planting density : 9,000 vines/ha.

Viticulture :
The vines are pruned in simple Guyot.
The vineyard is managed under organic and biodynamic cultivation.

Vinification :
A cold maceration: 8 to 12 days, then fermentation begins.
During this period, very light pigeages and remontages are performed (about once a day).
Fermentation temperatures do not exceed 28°C to preserve all the aromas of Pinot Noir.
The maceration lasts on average 4 weeks.
A decantation on conveyor is followed by a light pressing.
Press juices are incorporated with free-run juices or vinified separately. After settling, all juices are placed directly in barrels for malolactic fermentation.
The aging is done in new barrels for an average duration of 14 months.