Sipping Sancerre with a Rock Star - a conversation with Armand Mellot

Nearly 500 years before sauvignon blanc was planted in Marlborough, New Zealand, Pierre-Etienne Mellot was tending his vines rooted in the stony soils of Sancerre. These vineyards tended by the Mellot family have been producing generation after generation of exceptional wine. By the end of the 17th century, César Mellot was advising King Louis XIV on wine and now, 513 years after the family began its vinous odyssey in 1513, Armand Mellot continues the journey. With his mother and his brother Adrien he manages the house of Joseph Mellot, the only family to own and manage vineyards in all eight sauvignon blanc appellations of the Centre-Loire region. (It is called the Central Loire because it is in the center of France; it's actually at the eastern-most end of the Loire Valley).

Today, Armand Mellot brings us a postcard from one of France's greatest white wine-producing region. Sitting down with host Lyn Farmer, he shares a glass of chilled Sancerre and warm stories of this historic region. "We are ambassadors of a place and its wines," he says. In fact, he is an ambassador of eight places, including not only Sancerre but also Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, Quincy, Reuilly, and others. In this lively conversation we talk about the differences and similarities of these areas, of what the soil and the cultural terroir of these places puts in our glasses.

"It begins with the soil," he says, pulling three rocks out of his satchel. These rocks are rather like lumpy postcards themselves - a sparkling white chunk of Silex or flint; a greyish piece of "terres blanches," the same Kimmeridgian limestone and clay that give Chablis its character; and "caillotes," with its limestone from the austere hills that give bracing minerality and acidity to these wines.

The wines of Sancerre and its surrounding appellations are unique, with the fresh fruit and grassy character that are hallmarks of the sauvignon blanc grape and yet unlike the wine produced by this grape anywhere else in the world. Join us as we talk about the countryside, the people of the Loire, ther wines they make and the foods they pair with them. With his soil samples surrounding our wine glasses, I kid Armand about being a literal "rock star." It is a term the French use as well and it is a unique fit for this engaging young man who with his family makes sublime music from carefully tended vines.

I loved my time with Armand Mellot and his wines and I hope you will as well.