I love Muscadet, although (except perhaps around here), it often gets little respect. Even my spell-correct changed it to “muscadel”. It’s consistently an electrifying wine, with edgy fruit, piercing acidic cut, and the ability to compete with any wine claiming a mineral side.
Marc Ollivier’s Pépière Clos des Briords has been a case purchase for years, and I’ve especially loved the last few even-yeared versions. His Clisson and Chateau Thébaud Clos des Morines are also favorites. I’ve recently had some great Luneau-Papin, specifically Terre de Pierre Butte de la Roche, and some nearly twenty year old “L” d’Or that’s still singing. Also, Domaine de l’Ecu.
I’m just scratching the surface. This article by Jon Bonnè is a fantastic primer, one of my favorite recent wine pieces.
Since we’re talking about the Rodney Dangerfield of wine, this thread might wither on the vine, but I know there are a few of us out there who respect, buy, drink, and even cellar Muscadet.
I love Muscadet, too (and who doesn’t!), but even though their saline, super-mineral and taut style that’s just barely ripe is where my money is, it’s also interesting to try out those rich, vinous wines that are made from very ripe Melon grapes. I’m not sure how many producers there are making wines in this style, but Marc Pesnot’s (Domaine de la Senechalière) are really something.
I really enjoyed an '05 Pepiere Clisson recently: Smells vividly of the ocean, oysters, tidepools. Hardly any fruit aside from the squirt of fresh lemon. Pretty fascinating wine.
Can be less than a year, I believe. From Wikipedia (which doesn’t mean it’s correct, but this is also what I remembered)
“Prior to the early 1990s, any producer of Muscadet wine could use the phrase sur lie on their wine labels regardless of the length of time and manner that it actually spent in contact with the lees. In 1994, French authorities designed regulations that limit the use of sur lie to only wines that comply with a set guideline. First, while the sub-appellations of Muscadet-Sèvre et Maine, Muscadet-Coteaux de la Loire and Muscadet-Côtes de Grandlieu are permitted to use the term, any wine labeled with just the generic AOC Muscadet cannot. Second, the wine must spend at least a full winter in contact with the lees and not be bottled until after the third week of March following the harvest. Some wines are kept in contact longer, in order to produce a more full-bodied style, and not bottled till between mid-October to mid-November. Finally the wine must be bottled directly off its lees and not go through any racking or filtration process. Currently there is no regulation on the size or type of vessel that the wine should be kept in sur lie with. There is a movement among some Muscadet producers to limit the practice to just that done in standard-sized oak barrels, but currently any size barrel or even stainless steel fermentation tanks are allowed to age a wine sur lie and label it accordingly.”
I swear you read my mind! Just had a bottle of Pepiere this weekend and very much thinking of exploring Muscadet in depth soon. It has a lot of what I enjoy in a Chablis Premier Cru, and with those prices going up and up with the rest of Burgundy, Muscadet seems like such a great value. Fun to see some producers here new to me; I’ve only had Pepiere and l’Ecu that I remember, will try to check out Luneau-Papin soon.
Too acidic for me. My French friends introduced it to me at Cape Cod back in the early 80s. Oysters and all that stuff. But palates differ. I can handle oak, but not acid. Can’t do it.
I love muscadet and drink a lot of it, with food and alone. It’s one of the few wines I’ll drink when it’s really hot out, along with rose. Mainly it’s the usual suspects: Pepiere, Luneau Papin, Louvetrie. Pierre Henri’s Saint-Fiacre is also quite good and can be good value. I’m a bit worried that the secret it out on Muscadet and pricing is escalating. Luckily Muscadet is a vast wine growing region, much of it on desirable soils from what I understand. I assume that as the region improves we’ll see more and more decent wine from the region.
Warren, I read that Bonne article last week as well. Several new producers in there for whom to be on the lookout.
Merrill you may want to try some '15s. It was a very ripe vintage and the acids are much lower. Too ripe for my taste. The '15 Briords, for instance, is an decent wine, but to me it is far, far less exciting than '14 or '12. However, if the acid level bothers you in Muscadet, this might be a vintage to sample.
Still quite inexpensive. Pepiere’s Clos de Briords, always one of the best, is widely available for about $17-18. There are a few over $20, but not many that I know of
I consider it very inexpensive, to the point that it’s a bit strange. Is there any muscadet that has reached “premium” status? Everything seems to be $20-30 max, which is a boon for personal drinking but creates some strange situations when you’re BYOB (you don’t wanna come off as cheap but come on, it’s a great bottle of wine!).