The Crochet red 2006 Sancerre Prestige – a current release – is redolent of smoky black tea, tar, cinnamon, leather, and game. The gamy and leathery aspects persist on a prominently tannic palate, but there is sufficient abundance of juicy lightly cooked red berry fruit to balance the overall effect, leading to a spicy, sappy finish. I would suggest enjoying this over the next 12-18 months. (While I did not taste it, a 2009 Prestige will eventually be released, though no 2007 or 2008.) Lucien Crochet planned not to bottle any of his 2011s – save for the rose – until September, which considering the small size of the 2010 crop reflects notable restraint as well as dedication to what he thinks best for his wines, even if that puts him at slight commercial disadvantage. Several tank samples of Crochet’s 2011s required a shaking to liberate their scents and flavors from reduction, but that is, if anything, a positive, given the relatively late bottling in store for them and that 2011 is a vintage in which retaining freshness is especially important. He emphasized the advantages of hand-harvesting (routine for him), as well as those of strategic canopy management in largely avoiding the potential Scilla and Charybdis of under-ripeness or rot that he notes faced many growers in both 2011 and 2010. In his mission to craft from Sauvignon distinctly delicious reflections of his varied terroirs and varied artistic impulses, Crochet’s 2010s collectively represent a high point. But he is sure not to rest on his laurels, and indeed far out-performed all but a tiny minority of 2011s from his appellation. These Chavignol vines, incidentally, belong to a cousin of Crochet’s wife who is a pilot for Air France, and Crochet’s brother-in-law tends them in return for two-thirds of the crop, which becomes this bottling. (I re-tasted the inaugural 2009 alongside the 2010 and 2011, finding it still opulent as well as mineral-inflected, but already fairly evolved. And while less marked by its new oak than when I described it in issue 190, it now betrays as heat what Crochet acknowledges is 14.75% alcohol. The vineyard was new to him then, he points out; not right under his nose; and things were ripening too quickly everywhere in Sancerre that year.)Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990