INSIDER'S PICK: 2018 JEAN REVERDY SANCERRE ROUGE 'LES VILLOTS' $23.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

Pinot Noir isn't often thought of as a grape of high potential in Sancerre, definitively second in plantings and reputation to Sauvignon Blanc, and even in the hands of the top producers it's primarily used for making Rose. Absolute dreamy, beautiful Rose that we can't get enough of, so it isn't a bad thing. There just aren't many producers putting the effort into making a Sancerre Rouge of much character; even one of the best and best known, Domaine Hippolyte Reverdy (not directly related), had to be convinced by the importer Kermit Lynch to develop theirs early on. When you get one that's really on it, that hits on every cylinder, they are every bit the equivalent of their Burgundian counterparts, and at this price they are a stellar value. Deep for a Pinot in color with some savory black cherry skin and dried red fruit aromas at first, a bit closed at first but getting brighter and riper over some time in the glass, a sign this wine definitely has some staying power for aging. The palate has a bit more oompf that your usual basic Bourgogne, mostly provided by that tell-tale chalky minerality so associated with Samcerre, really gives the elegant fruit and tannins some extra presence and intensity through the finish. Much like the Bordeaux in last week's Insider, this is a great wine for enjoying over a full day or two, giving it time to evolve and show more of the complexity hidden under it's youth, something rarely able to be done on a Pinot at this price.

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