94+ From 50 years old vines on rocky, flint soils the 2012 Sancerre rouge Belle Dame offers a seriously delicate, precise and fleshy bouquet of truly ripe, juicy and thickly skinned dark fruits (cherries, blackthorn, black berries) along with lovely floral and herbal aromas and peppery flavors. This is a really fresh, intense and alluringly fragrant bouquet – just lovely! Full-bodied, fresh and mineral-laced on the piquant palate, this is a linear, intense, very delicate, silky textured, sweet and powerful Pinot with a stimulating grip and an impressive length. I tasted this wine along with the 2010 and 2009 and can say the 2012 is the finest and most elaborated Pinot of the trio with extremely fine tannins and a perfect balanced, almost weightless elegance. Aged in barrel for at least 18 months before release, this is along with the more transparent and fresh 2010, is the most impressive Pinot Noir from the Sancerrois I have tasted for this report. - Stephan Reinhardt