Reflecting as usual this domaine's unusual aggregate of roughly half flint-dominated soils and originating largely on the southern side of the Sancerre commune itself Vacheron's sleekly textured hedge flower-scented 2010 Sancerre is loaded with fresh lime - making for bright refreshment - while sweet saline savor akin to shrimp shell reduction liberates the salivary glands and nips of lime pip and pungent green herbs lend invigoration. This strikes me as relatively austere but admirably uncompromising stuff to have as a high-volume calling card - bully for Vacherons! Enjoy it over the next 3-4 years (I had the 2008 again very recently from a half bottle and it was delicious.) Incidentally the fruits of the very chalky Les Grands Champs - subject of a memorable 2009 single-vineyard bottling about which I wrote in issue 190 - were blended back into the generic bottling this year and will be indefinitely. "If we pull too many top sites out from the generic" notes Jean-Laurent sagely "its quality will suffer." --- David Schildknecht