Within the steep slopes and valleys of Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc reflects the individual soils and microclimates of its terroirs, and is a world apart from the popular New Zealand wines of the Marlborough region.

The entire world seems to be producing Sauvignon Blanc and the whole world willingly drink it. But wine consumers tend to identify Sauvignon Blanc with the New World rather than the time-honored names of Sancerre or Pouilly Fume in France.

But there is no doubt, to my mind at least, that Sauvignon Blanc reaches its pinnacle in the Loire Valley communes of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, with their quintessential terroir transparency and the remarkable ageing potential of their best vintages.

The white soils of the region, known as terres blanches, are composed of clay and limestone, which tends to slow the ripening of the grapes, the later harvesting expressed in the floral, fruity, or at times vegetal nuances. It produces an expressive chalk and flintmineral character and coiled citrus flavours that impart an ethereal poise to augment the exhilarating acidity and bracing dryness.

Sancerre was once totally planted with Pinot Noir, as that grape also favours these white soils, although it rarely achieves the quality level of Burgundy, tending instead towards pleasant, early drinking wines that are light and savoury. Sauvignon Blanc gained favour only after the onset of phylloxera in the late 19th century, as it grafted on to American rootstock more successfully.

"Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs reign supreme in their intensity, longevity and profound austerity"

Henri Bourgeois Sauvignon Blanc grapes

Sancerre, and neighboring Pouilly Fume, are separated by the Loire River and lie on the limestone shelf that runs from the White Cliffs of Dover down through Champagne and Chablis. This unique chalk stratum, also known as Kimmeridgian Clay and in parts, Marl, imparts a defining minerality and elevated natural acidity to the wines of the area.

The Kimmeridgian Marls are the oldest soils in the area, producing famous wines such as the Côte des Monts Damnés on the slopes of Sancerre and La Demoiselle in Pouilly Fume. Although restrained in their youth, the Marl wines possess strong personalities that given time express an abundance of exotic fruit aromas. They benefit greatly from a bottle age of ten years or more.

Some of the most seductive wines, come from the stony flint soils found alongside the Loire River, known locally as cailloux, which in much the same manner as the round river pebbles of Chateauneuf du Pape, reflect the sun's heat on to the vines, increasing the ripeness of the grapes and translating into a powerful framework of spicy scents and a smoky flintlock aroma with cutting acidity.

Jean-Marie Bourgeois and family own vineyards in this terroir, near the village of Chavignol, a region renowned for its Sauvignon Blanc, the family business growing from two hectares in 1950 to an impressive 65 hectares today. But Jean-Marie and his sons have recently purchased a vineyard in the Marlborough region of New Zealand as well, Clos Henri.

The vineyard cave

According to Jean-Marie , it was largely the fact that this was a completely untouched piece of l and and the anticipation of working unencumbered by the laws and dictums of France in a pristine, unadulterated environment that he found so irresistible. He also acknowledges the global success of the Marlborough region and the enticing phenomena of ‘the peoples’ Sauvignon Blanc’, Cloudy Bay.

One can understand why Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc pushes all the right buttons in the mass-market. With New Zealand's enviable long, dry radiant autumns and the cool night temperatures of the southern extremities, they do not get bad vintages in Marlborough. Its crowd-pleasing style flows effortlessly forth with its succulent stone-fruit and tropical mélange acidities balancing out the commercially palatable residual sugars.

Marlborough’s unashamedly and explicitly fruity, zesty crowd-pleasing style of Sauvignon Blanc is perfectly suited to the popular demands of the contemporary lifestyle and the modern-day palate. Its magnetism embodied to its immediate and democratic appeal as the consummate social lubricant. While the Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs reign supreme in their intensity, longevity and profound austerity and are relentlessly orientated towards food and convivial dining.

Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc & La Bourgeoise Sancerre Blanc

This is not to say Clos Henri does not have a unique terroir, indeed the very word Clos is an old French word delineating a unique vineyard site enclosed by a wall. In the case of Clos Henri it requires imagination to envisage the wooden fence posts and number-eight-wire as a wall around what was once a sheep station. It contains a soil largely pristine and totally free from the fertilisers and pesticides that are so prevalent in France.

It was this healthy soil that convinced Jean-Marie Bourgeois and his family that the vineyard represented a unique opportunity to start a bio-friendly vineyard completely from scratch. The first wines were planted in 2001. Clos Henri actually has three specific soil southern Wither Hills with their significant gradient leading to gentler undulations have an alluvium stony soil mixed with yellow-grey earths rich in minerals, yet free draining, and they are seen as the Antipodean cousin to the Bourgeois slopes in Sancerre.

Lower down on the gentler slopes, the soil changes to grey-brown clays speckled with ochre indicating a rich iron content that is more suited to Pinot Noir and gutsy wines full of flavour and length. e flatlands are the ancient riverbed soils of the old Wairau River, so central to Marlborough's success with Sauvignon Blanc. ese free-draining gravel soils can be up to 1.5 metres in depth, forcing the vines to send their roots deeper, the resulting water stress producing elegant wines with crisp, mineral finishes and an accentuated depth of fruit.

In the vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc is a vigorous vine that requires work to keep the canopy and foliage under control, but this quality also contributes to its commercial viability and success, as Sauvignon Blanc is a relatively generous cropper that retains good flavours and balance even at relatively higher yields than those of many other white varieties.

That said, the window of ripening for Sauvignon Blanc is frustratingly small and requires vigilant scrutiny as there is a precariously fine line between either under-ripe or over-ripe picking. The key issue with ripeness is to achieve a level that avoids the unappealing cooked asparagus, green capsicum or overt-herbaceous characters of unripe Sauvignon Blanc, while at the same time not pushing the envelope so far that over-ripeness results in a sweet syrup that sacrifices the vital natural acidity, resulting in a flabby wine that leaves the mouth gluey and struggling to finish the first glass.

"Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc pushes all the right buttons in the mass-market"

On the subject of sweetness, the residual sugars in Sauvignon Blanc are obviously a factor exploited commercially by the large new world producers, with five or six grams per litre (RS g/l) not uncommon in Marlborough. Most of the old world producers, and the small quality vineyards among the new world wineries, tend to be much drier in style, somewhere around two or three RS g/1. There is also more importance placed on a naturally high acidity with cooler-climate styles and wines from the Loire Valley often nudging a bracing 7 grams tartaric acidity (g/l T/A).

In the winery Sauvignon Blanc is similar to Riesling in that the less intervention there is in the winemaking process the better. That is not to say, throw it in the tank and leave it alone, precision temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel tanks is required, along with a meticulous attention to detail that includes minimal contact with the skins in order to avoid any phenolic flavours, and rigorous cleanliness, which is the key to preserving the vivacious, zingy freshness and naturally expressive perfume and fruit of Sauvignon Blanc.

It is generally accepted that new oak, with the emphasis on new, does not agree with most Sauvignon Blanc wines although the exception to the rule is the most powerful, mineraldriven wines from very old vines in certain Sancerre and Pouilly Fume terroirs: wines such as Sancerre La Bourgeoise Blanc, and Sancerre d’Antan, which were made without fining or filtration from vines planted in flint soils in 1936, or Sancerre Etienne Henri produced from 50 to 60 year-old vines planted in flint.

These wines also have the added nuances and complexities of extended contact with dead yeast cells, or lees, and batonage, the stirring of the lees, where they integrate with the oak over time and need a minimum of three or four years to show at their best.

However, a line must be drawn between grapes that can be enhanced by such techniques and winemakers that are bored, or ambitious marketers trying to raise Sauvignon Blanc’s status to the realms of Chardonnay, namely a White Burgundy. Frequently employing the completely passé and convoluted manoeuvre of a ‘reserve’ wine, invariably over-priced.

This is is ver y much the case with Sauvignon Blanc produced in the USA, where Robert Mondavi exploited the old Loire Valley synonym for Sauvignon Blanc, Blanc Fumé. At the same time flaunting the association of the name with Pouilly Fume and inventing Fume Blanc. While unquestionably a marketing success, the habitual oak barrel fermenting and ageing of the Sauvignon Blanc results in a wine lacking the requisite depth of fruit and exhibiting none of the grape’s character.

Discussing the different soils and characteristics of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume with Jean-Marie Bourgeois was a truly enlightening experience. I was however quite surprised how typical of Marlborough the Clos Henri was as I expected the wine to exhibit more of a French influence. However, the Bourgeois family is determined the wine will reflect its own terroir, perhaps with a subtle house style and the years of expertise lending some extra individuality.

70-year-old vines in Sancerre

Family Favourites

Henri Bourgeois Pouilly Fume 2006
Potent scents of gooseberry, passion fruit and grapefruit with a lemon sherbet zesty character underpin the chalkiness and inty, smoky minerals. Strong passion fruit avours on entry, lots of grapefruit and sweet mandarin succulence, then a sudden twist to tangy lemon that tightens up, becoming incredibly racy towards the back palate, with amazing concentrations of grapefruit and freshly squeezed lemon. Lovely chalky grip on the farewell with pronounced inty, graphite avours and impressive length.

Henri Bourgeois Sancerre ‘Les Baronnes’ 2006
More reserved than Pouilly Fume, subtle lime, pears and green apple, nettles and minty Laksa leaf aromas. With a complex bouquet containing raw almond nuances and sea salt, wet earth and limestone minerality. It has a very tightly coiled palate and a most impressive structure: lean and taut with a tantalising razor sharp lemon palate and invigorating spicy, pickled ginger and wasabi heat, rising amongst the lemongrass avours.

Incredibly intense acidity, chalky and infused with rock salt, with a back palate of biting lemon with some delicious hints of sweetness and then a long farewell of lemon and cold mountain-fresh minerality that nishes as dry as Taranaki on a Sunday! An exhilarating wine, it is the quintessence of Sauvignon Blanc.

Clos Henri 2007
Snowpea shoot, garden mint, gooseberry and the sweeter perfume of ripe kiwi fruit, plenty of citrus in the grapefruit, and some tropical subtle tones of guava and fresh.

Fleshy and zingy palate on entry, then a rush of succulent fruit although much tighter on the mid-palate with excellent zingy acidity, one senses the house style, yet clearly with the eshiness and presence of Marlborough fruit.

For more information on both regions and the Henri Bourgeois wines visit, www.bourgeois-sancerre.com and www.clos-henri.com

“Curtis Marsh is a fully independent wine, food and travel writer with over 30 years experience in hospitality, wine and media industries.”