Description
Pierre Cherrier et Fils, Sancerre Rosé “La Croix Poignant”
If I told you that this rosé was just getting started, would you believe me? I sure hope so, because with one additional year in bottle, it has evolved into a delicious, invigorating, sneakily complex wine!
We’ve spent a lot of time bucking the conventional wisdom on rosé—the “wisdom” that only the most recent vintage will do—and if you pull the cork on Pierre Cherrier’s 2021 “La Croix Poignant,” you’ll be beating the drum alongside us. Its brightness works beautifully in the dead of winter, with the slightest kiss of tannin and lots of savory, spicy, floral notes to complement food. After all, this isn’t some run-of-the-mill rosé—it’s Pinot Noir from Sancerre, one of the world’s greatest terroirs for the grape. The LEAST you can do is wait until its “second spring” to crack it open, and as you’ll see, the best is yet to come. At just $28, I strongly urge you to grab several bottles for drinking whenever/wherever over the next year!
While its versatility makes this small-production wine seem easygoing, the producer and winemaking are serious and considered. The Cherrier family has been producing in the village of Chadoux, in the Sancerre AOP, since the late 1800s. Today, the business is run by François and Jean-Marie. They’re dedicated to showcasing terroir and tradition: The tiny “La Croix Poignant” vineyard has vines that are about 20 years old, sitting on top of terre blanche clay and limestone soil with a distinct flinty note. The grapes for this wine are hand harvested and pressed quickly to extract color. Indigenous yeast adds another layer of terroir, while tank-aging maintains freshness.
That freshness comes together with a spicy nose of cardamom and coriander in this charming pale pink pour. An especially hot summer like 2021 led to an abundance of concentrated red fruits like cherry, tangy plum tiny wild strawberries that create a sensation of brightness. Blood orange and grapefruit notes add a pleasing hint of bitterness for balance and draw out the cardamom notes. Finally, a savory, flinty, mineral finish is palate-cleansing, refreshing, and one of my favorite aspects of any Sancerre, be it white, rosé, or red. It still has a very taut structure, and, believe it or not, I’d treat it like a light red if you’re opening a bottle now: serve in all-purpose stems, and let the temperature come up past 50 degrees to really get the most from it. The aromatics are complex and inviting, and a profound mineral savor accents the long finish.
Then there’s the almost unparalleled versatility of this wine with food. As an apéritif, it will go well with mild snacks like fresh chèvre, almonds, and prosciutto. Serve it at a long, lazy brunch next to your frittatas and eggs benedict. It will also hold its own next to charred, grilled fish of the fattier varieties; think tuna, salmon, or trout. And with all those great warming spice notes, it’s beautiful alongside cuisines that use similar flavors, like Moroccan, Persian, Turkish, or Indian. Put that to the test and see how well this wine holds up next to hearty stews with a Moroccan tagine. The wine will play nicely with not just the Ras el Hanout spice blend, but also the almonds and apricots in the attached chicken tagine. Enjoy!
