Most people, when tasting the Belle Dame, a cuvée of 50 year-old vines of Pinot Noir grown on pure flint soils, compare it to Burgundy. It understandable and unfortunate at the same time as this is a terror quite distinct from anything in Burgundy – further north and on hard flinty soils. Before phylloxera, Sancerre was renown as Pinot Noir country, and justly so. Sadly, there are few producers, like Vacheron, who care enough to prove just how amazing Pinot Noir can be from this part of the Loire. It is a singular wine, and the benchmark Sancerre Rouge.