Where does this mineral sensation come from? The soil is crucial in developing these flavors, though scientists have yet to agree on exactly how this works. As Jacqueline Friedrich points out in “Earthly Delights From the Garden of France,” the soils of Sancerre are part of the same geological formation that makes up much of the Chablis and Champagne regions. I find it fascinating that good Sancerre and good Chablis can have more in common than Sancerre and sauvignon blancs from California or New Zealand.

The three recommended wines were excellent examples of Sancerre, all with the underlying elements of citrus, hay and mineral flavors but different nonetheless. The 2012 La Croix du Roy from Lucien Crochet was the fullest bodied, yet graceful and zesty, with a lip-smacking, refreshing quality. The 2012 Bailly was more pungent, with a fruit flavor that reminded me of candied grapefruit peel, yet lighter-bodied and tangy. The 2012 Gérard Boulay à Chavignol was my favorite. It had a depth and texture that seemed to resound in the mouth long after I swallowed and a great, snappy minerality.

Most of you liked the wines very much. I was thrilled that many of you were not drinking just one bottle, but were actively seeking out Sancerres for comparison, and even trying sauvignon blancs from other regions in tandem with the Sancerre.

It would be presumptuous of me to recommend this for everybody. The wines are not cheap, and I don’t dismiss the investment many of you are making by seeking out one wine. But really, there is no better way to assess one bottle than in comparison with another, so if you can do it, bravo!

Almost everybody noted how these wines change when consumed with food, and many of you enjoyed Sancerre with goat cheese in one variation or another. That’s a tried and true regional pairing. I don’t believe that the wines of a region automatically go with the local cheeses (don’t make the mistake of serving Époisses with delicate red Burgundy, for example) but this match for me is a joyous expression of Sancerrois culture.

I was surprised by how many of you found the wines to be not particularly aromatic. I suspect that many people are making these initial observations on bottles pulled directly from the refrigerator. This may sound a little un-American, but drinking good white wine too cold is like listening to music through ear muffs. The cold mutes the aromas and flavors, numbing the wine to a dull neutrality. You want to do this with bad wine; the flaws will be hidden. But good wine? It will benefit greatly if you take it out of the fridge a half-hour before you plan to drink it. Trust me, you will enjoy the wine much more lightly cool.

The three wines I recommended offered a general view of the region, but each of these producers makes smaller cuvées of wines that exhibit the more local qualities of specific terroirs, like Boulay’s Monts Damnés bottling or Le Chêne from Crochet. Some Sancerres, as a reader who identified himself as “Ludovic of New York” pointed out, come from grapes planted on flinty silex soils in the eastern part of the appellation and tell a different story. Les Romains from Domaine Vacheron is an excellent example of a Sancerre from silex.