See the top five Sancerre wines from the 2015 vintage rated by Decanter's expert judges in our latest panel tasting...
These were the top Sancerre 2015 wines in Decanter’s September 2016 issue panel tasting.
These top scorers, out of 83 entries, all scored at average of at least 94 points, tasted by Jim Budd, Andy Howard MW and Chris Kissack.
The 2015 vintage showed consistent quality with ripe, approachable wines, our tasters said.
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Top Sancerre 2015 wines:
More comments from this tasting:
Andy Howard MW said he was impressed by the fruit purity and ‘lack of any lean or green notes’ in many of the Sancerre 2015 wines.
But the overt ripeness presented as ‘a tinge of botrytis and almost caramelised fruit flavours’ in some examples, which upset fellow taster Chris Kissack.
The judges felt alcohol levels were well handled.
Andy Howard said the wines at 12.5% abv ‘were a bit on the dilute side’, and those at 14% or more ‘started to become a problem’.
He said it came down to a balance of alcohol along with ripeness, concentration and acidity.
Jim Budd agreed, and said this balance helped the region’s wines age better than most consumers imagined:
‘You can enjoy Sancerre when it’s young and fresh, but if you buy a top Sancerre you will get additional complexity with 10 or 15 years in the cellar that you couldn’t find in other Sauvignon Blancs.’
Edited for Decanter.com by Laura Seal
