Alphonse Mellot Cuvee Edmond-Six Vintages Spanning 2008 to 1983

Between the utter generosity of a dear friend and a side trip to the source of this wine, we tasted through this extraordinary range over 2 days.

• 2001 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Edmond

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre

  (4/2/2011)

  Magnum. Light yellow. No wood showing. Most classic and subtle of the 3 vintages tasted tonight with lovely mature grapefruit and tons of minerality with surrounding additional layers that are rare in Sancerre apart from the likes of producers such as Boulay and Cotat.

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• 2003 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Edmond

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre

  (4/2/2011)

  Deeper yellow. Clearly riper and some oak but it tries hard to maintain its Sancerre core. Compared to so many other '03 European whites, it retains structure and vibrancy. Not great but very good for the vintage conditions.

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• 1996 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Edmond

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre

  (4/2/2011)

  Light gold. Clearly past its best with oxidative notes, but this perked up slightly with air to show some grapefruit and ultimately, it displayed itself like an extreme example of late harvested but dry Sancerre. Pretty strange.

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• 2008 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Edmond

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre

  (4/3/2011)

  Medium yellow. Rich, almost buttery nose with subdued fruit. Remarkable texture which is more akin to white Burgundy or Savenniere than any Sauvignon I can think of. After this wave of fullness and richness, it regains its "Sancerreness" on the finish, which is suffused with lower toned grapefruit and a blast of minerality which leads to a very long finish. Potentially magnificent, great incipient complexity and unlike anything else in Sancerre. Not to everyone's taste, that is for sure, but I loved it today.

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• 1998 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Edmond

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre

  (4/3/2011)

  Medium yellow with some green; this was lighter in color than the '96 we had yesterday. Sublime nose of honey, truffle, citrus fruit, and then, remarkably, even quince. Incredibly fresh, long and mouthcoating with more than enough acidity to provide backbone. The wood gives it shape and texture rather than imposing itself on the taste of the wine. At the very end you get a glimpse of Sauvignon fruit which brings you back to its origins. Absolutely brilliant, grand white wine at a perfect state of maturity now. I have to think that this is the essence of what they are trying to do with this cuvee.

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• 1983 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre Edmond

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre

  (4/3/2011)

  Basically the same color as the '98-amazing for a 28 year old white. Nose had a lot of sulfur that took a while to blow off, but when it did, out came a nose of herbs and green fruit. Like the younger vintage, lovely mouth feel, but less weighty than the '98 was. The combination of Sauvignon fruit coupled with this texture had me thinking of great white Graves, but there is no Semillon here to provide this layered feel. If you closed your eyes and concentrated on the quality of the fruit here, you could easily believe you were drinking a 2 year old wine rather than one aged for almost 3 decades. Completely miraculous, like a Sancerre locked in a time capsule; I'm sure the generous dose of sulfur helps explain this though. From its structure, it seems that the wood regimen was considerably different then (perhaps even non-existent?) compared to how the wine is vinified today.

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This is a wine that can surely cause controversy amongst Sancerre lovers, since as I said about one of the vintages, it is completely different than anything else produced here. The wood can be offputting, especially when the wines are young. If you are looking for classic Sancerre snap, minerality and zesty citrus, look elsewhere, but for a fascinatingly complex, ageworthy wine that can rival some of the world's greatest aged white wines (at least in its best vintages), this is a pretty compelling cuvee.