The Tasting Panel magazine

Coast to Coast buy wine to collect and they forget we make wine to drink now. Wine is good for families to gather around and enjoy; it's a link between people and one of the key points of communication between us." Pierre-Jean Sauvion, Sauvion, Loire Valley "I look young because I've been drinking Muscadet since I was three," says Pierre-Jean Sauvion, 31, a fourth-generation winemaker. Sauvion loves to talk about Muscadet's image problem as a cheap, dry wine because it gives him the opportunity to convince people that this former wallfl ower is now the life of the party. Sauvion, who styles himself "the pleasure-maker of the Loire," would rath- er talk about the experience of drinking wine than compile tasting notes. He says people don't understand what it's like to taste nettles, for example, as much as they understand how to enjoy a social glass of wine. "My father taught me to open a bottle only with good friends," he said. "The best bottle I ever drank was a Château du Cléray [his own wine] with my girlfriend in a beautiful setting; the worst I drank was a Château du Cléray with my enemy." But when he does talk about his favorite wine's characteristics, Sauvion turns serious. "There is an identity to this region—fruit and mineral that is about freshness, fi neness and elegance. I'm in the wine business because there's so much to discover, and I like to have a little mystery in the wine." He adds, "I want the feelings from the wine—not the details." Guy Sarton du Jonchay, Vidal-Fleury, Rhône If forced, oenologist Guy Sarton du Jonchay will describe the process of turning juice to wine. But as soon as he can, he steers the conversation to a more holistic discussion of the relationship between people, the earth, the vine and then the wine. That's not surprising, considering his background as a sociologist. "Winemaking is not only a question of tech- nique; it's about having a sense of the vine and understanding that even in the same vineyard, each piece has its own characteristic." That philosophy spills over into the Vidal-Fleury cellar, where no wine ships before its time. Some, like the signature Côte-Rôtie, stay in bottles for a year—necessary, says Sarton du Jonchay, for the wines' recovery from the trauma of bottling. "Wine is like a human. If you make a wine with a strong personality, it doesn't go with a lot of people." With vineyards in both the Northern and Southern Rhône, Vidal-Fleury produces more appellation wines than any other Rhône vintner. And though he runs a traditional winery, Sarton du Jonchay says half his mentality comes from New World infl uences. "The market isn't divided into modern and traditional. You can make a traditional wine with modern processes," he says. "And now wines are styled and chosen to be drunk according to their personalities." —Lana Bortolot Pierre-Jean Sauvion shows off his Château du Cléray Muscadet Sèvre et Maine in New York. Spago's Liberty duck breast with wild porcini mushrooms matched with the Château La Louvière Rouge. Philippe Solom of André Lurton at Spago with Yannick Cueff , Wine Manager at Anisette in Santa Monica. PHOTO BY LANA BORTOLOT PHOTO BY DAVID GADD PHOTO BY DAVID GADD july 2009 / the tasting panel / 75

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