Sancerre for less than 10 bucks a bottle

I had my first taste of a new white Sancerre bought at Trader Joe's on Lincoln for an incredibly low price of $9.99.
The label on this 2009 bottle says that it is "produced" by Laurent Reverdy in Verdigny.
Verdigny is a tiny village located 3 miles Northeast from the Village of Sancerre where several members of the Reverdy family produce
other white and Red Sancerre wines. The whites are made from Sauvignon Blanc, a grape originally grown in this area and the reds from Pinot noir.
I could not find any listing of Laurent as a wine-grower in my regular French books and Internet sources. Perhaps he is a "négociant'' (wine broker and distributor) assembling and selling wine from grapes produced by other members of the Reverdy families.
In any case I was very reluctant to try a Sancerre sold at this price since most white wines produced by well-established Sancerre wine makers such as Baron, Chatelain, Lafond, Thomas, Crochet, Mellot, Bourgeois, Morin, Reverdy, Bourgeois, Balland, Vacheron, Chateau de Sancerre, , and many others are sold for twice or sometimes 3 times that price.
But to my surprise this 100% Sauvignon blanc, as all other whites from this most easterly part of the Loire Valley, North of Bourges, are, (the other regional AOC being Reuilly, Quincy, Pouilly, Menetou-Salon which are all delicious) was very enjoyable: Fresh and dry but not acidic, good fruit and minerality, soft and easy to drink, relatively long finish for such a cheap wine. Some notes of melon and peach were pleasant but subltle. It is not a "classy" or elegant wine with lots of finesse but it is nevertheless quite pleasant as a whole.
It would go nicely with any type of river fish like trout or pike, a quiche, truffled scrambled eggs, a grilled breast of chicken with beurre blanc, and of course a nice dry semi-hard goat cheese like a Chavignol made near Sancerre.
Quite a find.

Thanks for the heads up Alain, I'll be trying a bottle tomorrow.

Sancerre is one of my favorite white wine varieties, so when I spotted it at Trader Joe's a few months ago I grabbed a bottle right away. Like Alain, I was also quite pleasantly surprised with how good it was. It was nice and light, with hints of nice fruit and a lovely balance of acidity. Trader Joe's has a good number of hidden gems in its wine department, but I have been disappointed at times with the some of the duds they seem to have in the below $14 dollar category. It sounds like they make exclusivity deals with different vitners from around the world to get many of their wines at lower price points (as does Whole Foods) and the Sancerre is definitely one of their must trys.

alain40 wrote:I had my first taste of a new white Sancerre bought at Trader Joe's on Lincoln for an incredibly low price of $9.99.

Alain, thanks for the tip, I tried this on your recommendation and was very impressed with it for that price point. Keep the tips coming.

Is this the Sancerre?

http://www.lena-bradford.com/FT/FT-Reve ... ucroux.pdf

mchodera wrote:Is this the Sancerre?

http://www.lena-bradford.com/FT/FT-Reve ... ucroux.pdf

I don't think that's the one.

I tried the Trader Joe's Reverdy Sancerre, and my feeling about it is that it's about as good as you would expect a $10 bottle of Pinot Noir to be, which is, that it's good for $10, but you need to spend more money in order to really enjoy that type of wine. I thought it was fine, but had too much banana showing through for me to enjoy it tremendously. Having said that, if you're looking at this strictly from a regional and price standpoint, then yeah, it's pretty good. So if you're a die-hard Sancerre fan, here's an everyday version for you. But I'm not that die-hard of a Sancerre drinker such that I wouldn't reach for something else at the same price point. But, alain40, a good find, and worth trying for experiment's sake.

Mchodera: I'm afraid yours is a different Reverdy winemaker (very good one in fact). The one you mentioned is from another branch of the Reverdy family (most of them come from the same village as the Reverdy from TJ's).
But nevertheless my only motivation was to indicate that a modest but quite drinkable Sancerre was available at TJ's for a very decent price. It was never my intention to try and compare it to more expensive Sancerre from well-established wine producers from that delightful appellation.