Alphonse Mellot : Génération XIX 2020

Tasting Notes and Serving Suggestions for Alphonse Mellot’s Génération XIX 2020

Tasting

Appearance

The wine displays remarkable brilliance, revealing a pale golden-yellow hue lifted by subtle green highlights, reflecting optimal grape ripeness and meticulous winemaking.

Nose

The nose unveils impressive aromatic complexity, combining ripeness and freshness. It offers lingering honeyed notes, expressive citrus aromas and nuances of dried fruits underscored by a subtle menthol touch. With aeration, the bouquet gains tones of beeswax, delicate gingerbread, white acacia and a distinctive saline minerality. Scents of grapefruit, pineapple and tropical fruits complete this generous aromatic palette.

Palate

The attack is crisp and precise, followed by a remarkable breadth that pleasantly coats the palate. The palate expresses fine overall richness, carried by vibrant yet perfectly balanced acidity. Citrus notes linger, accompanied by toasted hazelnut aromas from oak aging. The finish stands out for its pronounced minerality, distinct iodine-like salinity and exceptional persistence. The broad, generous structure lends the wine a natural charm, with an enveloping roundness that never tips into excess.

Food Pairings

Génération XIX 2020 pairs magnificently with seafood: plain oysters, langoustines, lobster, scallops, or delicate white fish such as Loire pike, turbot or monkfish. Dishes served with creamy sauces and lemony beurre blanc find an ideal partner in this wine. Pairing it with fresh or aged goat cheeses, notably Crottin de Chavignol, is an unmissable regional classic. This Sancerre also accompanies poultry in sauce, sweetbreads, and mushroom-and-cream fricassées with elegance.

Serving and Cellaring

Génération XIX 2020 is ideally enjoyed between 10 and 12°C as an aperitif, or between 12 and 14 °C alongside a gastronomic dish. This wine has cellaring potential through around 2030, with the likelihood that the finest bottles will develop greater complexity over a longer period.

An exceptional Sancerre from biodynamically farmed nonagenarian vines

The estate

In the early 19th century, Alphonse Mellot founded the family estate in Sancerre, which has since been passed down and expanded from father to son.

As early as the 16th century, local archives mention the Mellot family as renowned winegrowers and wine merchants. As an anecdote, in 1698, King Louis XIV chose César Mellot as a viticultural advisor.

The eldest of each generation bears the founder’s first name. Thus, even today, father and son Alphonse Mellot carry on this winemaking tradition and produce high-quality Sancerre wines from a single, contiguous vineyard of more than 30 hectares.

The vineyard

The Génération XIX cuvée comes exclusively from the La Moussière parcel, covering roughly one hectare, planted on Saint-Doulchard marls, commonly known as caillottes, with a base of upper Kimmeridgian marls. The south-southwest exposure optimizes sunshine and grape ripening. The key distinctive feature lies in the exceptional age of the vines: averaging eighty-seven years old, with some vines dating back to 1912, they are among the oldest still in productive activity within the Sancerre appellation. This deeply anchored root system in the geological strata gives the wine outstanding organoleptic concentration and a distinctive mineral expression. Farmed according to the principles of certified Biodyvin biodynamic agriculture, the vines benefit from management aligned with lunar and astronomical cycles, without any synthetic plant-protection products.

The vintage

The 2020 vintage benefited from pronounced summer temperatures while preserving surprising acidity, creating a complex weather pattern that required an optimized harvest. This year was marked by warm conditions that encouraged generous grape ripeness, while maintaining the acidic balance essential to the wine’s elegance.

Winemaking and aging

The Génération XIX 2020 grapes are hand-harvested into small crates, preserving the integrity of each berry. Whole-cluster pneumatic pressing, a gentle technique, minimizes the extraction of undesirable astringent compounds. Static settling is carried out at a temperature below 10°C for forty-eight hours. Fermentation takes place in small, 900-liter truncated-conical vats, allowing precise temperature control and nuanced aromatic extraction. Aging occurs in truncated-conical wooden vats on fine lees for ten to twelve months, a particularly long period for a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc. During this phase, the dead yeasts lend additional texture and increased aromatic complexity. The final stage of aging is carried out in tank for at least four months, before bottling at the estate.

Grape variety

100% Sauvignon Blanc.