Two Wines to Fght Sancerre Price Creep
2025 Laetitia Ducroux Sancerre + 2024 Clef du Recit Quincy
October 10, 2026
Sancerre’s popularity and recent smaller vintages have driven up prices. We have been assiduously tasting to find more reasonably priced Sancerres to offer to you. Too many were light and thin, slipping unmemorable off the tongue without the character that distinguishes the appellation.
2025 Laetitia Ducroux Sancerre
Although this was one of the less expensive, we tried. Full and fresh, it has the delightfully forward freshness of the fine 2025 Loire vintage.
Domaine Laetitia Ducroux (she is the winemaker) is a generations-old family-run estate in the heart of Sancerre. It has classic Sancerre terroir—a cool continental climate and limestone-rich soils ideal for expressing Sauvignon Blanc with precision and purity. Laetitia has a thoughtful approach that emphasizes respect for the land and a clear expression of place.
The wine is machine-harvested and vinified with minimal intervention to preserve freshness and varietal purity. The wine undergoes classic fermentation without malolactic conversion and sees no oak influence, resulting in a clean, vibrant, and mineral-driven expression typical of Sancerre.
Aroma: heady and spicy, intense; heady and savory, rich green apple and light citrus; Mouth: fleshy, ripe acid fat, intense fat, juicy and full, good intensity, mouthfilling with a mineral edge; Very Good Plus $34; Case, $28.95
For a Sancerre-like Sauvignon that’s lighter but with a similar flair and cut
2024 Clef du Recit Quincy
Anthony Girard comes from a Loire Valley family of growers. After stints at top Rhone producers Ogier and Villard he broadened his experience and vision in South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, and Hungary. In 2012 he decided to go off on his own, purchasing his first vineyards and naming his estate Clef du Recit, the Key to the Story in French. You’ll taste that he certainly has found that in this wine. Although he makes very good Sancerre, his Quincy (kanzee, not kwinsee, in French) is equally striking at a much more affordable price. It has cut and intensity. Although lighter in body, it has a vibrant lemony character, much more intense than most peer-priced Loire Sauvignon Blancs we have tasted.
Aroma: Heady, savory & light; lifted and elegant, precise. Mouth: Fleshy and broad, clean, fine acid, soft, soft Sauvignon, ripe and filigreed. inviting; Very Good Plus $25.95; Case, $21.95
Len Rothenberg
Mix any twelve of these at their case prices
FREE DELIVERY!
in Greater Boston on orders more than $250
Nominal cost on smaller orders
Fedex to other parts of Mass.
