May Wine Focus: Back to basics with Muscadet

[Robin Garr]

Muscadet is one of my favorite whites, particularly from Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine, which makes up about 80% of regional production. You can count o it for crisp, clean, minerally, with added complexity that comes when it gets sur lie vinification, as it often does. Located near the mouth of the Loire, this wine from the melon grape evolved as a natural match for the region's seafood, oysters in particular. Happily, it's usually complex and interesting but not usually terribly expensive, which makes it easy to find good QPR.

Here's a short info page on Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine on Wine-Searcher.com, where you can also page down to find a long list of links to online merchants offering specific bottlings.
https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-m ... g_site=WLP

Muscadet..great except I am away May 4 to May 28th..

I was puzzling about what wine to serve with a birthday dinner consisting of oysters followed by lobster and might not have thought of this Muscadet without the presence of this thread. Finding a white which suits both is not easy. Young crisp and saline Muscadet is a natural with oysters but I usually think of a richer white for lobster. In the past, until the pox struck, mature white Burgundy was a natural but I no longer have any of those after having consigned so many down the sink. This 5 year old Muscadet was a good compromise, because it was still fresh enough for the oysters whilst having enough body and absence of rough edges for the lobster.

2014 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Les Gras Moutons - France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine (5/3/2019)
This bottle doesn't seem to have evolved much since the one I opened in October 2016 and my then description still applies, namely medium bodied with richer citrus and apple fruit than usual, refined minerals, lively moreish acidity and saline backbone. I was struck by its purity and it went beautifully with oysters, as last time, and well with cold Breton lobster. However it had not yet developed creamier, more Burgundian, notes which I recall from a 10 year L d'Or. Maybe in time? Very good.
Posted from CellarTracker

[David M. Bueker]

Muscadet..great except I am away May 4 to May 28th..

Oops...sorry. Had I but known your plans I would have moved Muscadet to a different month.

[David M. Bueker]

2005 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords - France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine (5/6/2019)
Served with pan-seared scallops, this was a good, if not great bottle. It still showed the baseline citrus and salinity, but it was a bit tired, perhaps even slightly oxidative. That being said, the hints of oxidation actually worked well with the brown butter notes in the scallops. I have a few more bottles, and will get to them soon. Given the low ($10) cost of this for me when I bought it, there's no downside to having experimented with extended aging.

[Jenise]

I bought two muscadets to try today, but won't get to them until over the weekend. Popped in here to share, though, that the friend I was shopping with said, within earshot of Tim the retailer, "Isn't that a sweet wine?" You should have seen Tim's face. "NO! I have to hand sell every bottle of muscadet because everyone thinks it's a sweet wine!!!" I can understand why.

[David M. Bueker]

Huh. I have literally never heard that about Muscadet. Maybe it’s a newer issue due to the popularity of Moscato.

I've heard that from non-wine people. They obviously don't know what Muscadet is, but I think it's the confusion with Muscato. Who knows.

[Jenise]

I've heard that from non-wine people. They obviously don't know what Muscadet is, but I think it's the confusion with Muscato. Who knows.

That's definitely it. Muscat and Muscadet look pretty similar to the novice eye.

[David M. Bueker]

Oh, but dry Muscat is such a joy as well!

Back when I was running restaurants I served a Muscadet by the glass for a while, and about 1/5 people would send it back because they thought it was sweet. I once had a lady tell me she just thought that was the French spelling of Muscat...

Here in France, Muscadet is an almost automatic "go-to" when one wants a lightish and crisp dry white. Yesterday I was at a brasserie and ordered a seafood platter (oysters, shrimps and prawns in various sizes, whelks, clams, crab...). Guess what? A glass of Muscadet was my choice of accompaniment. Sadly it was a rather boring one; not helped by being insufficiently cool, not very crisp or saline and mainly apply in flavour.

One of the disadvantages about eating out is that I have to drive home and one glass is about the limit .

[Jenise]

I picked up two at the local co-op this week.


2016 Luneau-Papin / Domaine Pierre de la Grange Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine "L" d’Or Granite Melon de Bourgogne
Elegantly restrained fruit and good minerality. Clean, refreshing. Buy more!

2016 Gadais Pere & Fils Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Melon de Bourgogne
Nice nose but unfortunately that's the only good part. On the palate, fairly dilute with no finish whatsoever. Avoid.

[David M. Bueker]

2012 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Clisson - France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine (5/12/2019)
Delicious now, with citrus fruit and crushed seashell minerality. It’s medium bodied, and the finish is persistent, flavorful and comes with a bracing finishing kick.

Peppiere is my #1 Muscadet, but I too have found it oxidized lately. Always a great disappointment.

[David M. Bueker]

Peppiere is my #1 Muscadet, but I too have found it oxidated. Always a great disappointment.

I bet it’s an issue with the short corks more than the wine itself.

[Jenise]

Didn't think I'd have another contribution to this thread but lo and behold a dinner guest brought this the other night. As he's a real penny-pincher, and the red he brought was dreck, I was surprised at how decent this was. Correct in every way for time and place though I think if you served it to me and called it Picpoul I'd believe that: 2017 Pierre-Henri Gadais Domaine de la Combe Muscadet Sevre et Maine. Bright, lively, minerally, balanced.

• 2009 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords - France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine (2019-05-19)
  I enjoy the roundness and more integrated flavours that aging gives muscadets. Not that they aren;t great young as well! This was drinking really well now, with aging also adding richness, but of course the acids and minerality are still there in the background. (A-)

[Jenise]

You got the best there, John.

Btw, is it a particular deal in this part of the Loire that the winemaker AND winery names appear in the wine title? Just noticing the parenthetical Marc in your title and the Pierre in my note before yours.

I have no idea why CellarTracker specifically notes the winemaker along with the producer with these Muscadets. Anybody else have an idea?

I don't think it's Loire specific, but just cases where the wine is known by two names (usually a historic name, and the owner who is generally the winemaker) it makes sense. It's Pepiere but people also refer to as Marc Olivier wines. Pretty common in Beaujolais- Brun/Terres Dorees, Vissoux/Chermette, Coudert/Roilette- I use interchangeabley.
In Germany everyone one knows von Schubert=MaxGrun and Zilliken = Forstmeister Geltz.
Slightly different but there are the Jadot properties like Ch. des Jacques and Gagey, and Drouhin Lauguiche
Biondi-Santi /Tenuta Greppo, Ceretto (Bricco Asili) in Italy

[David M. Bueker]

Dale has it right. Eric’s data team does the data consolidation thing on a regular basis, and the multi-name entries are how they reduce the duplicates with slightly different naming conventions.

Back in action here after a 3 week holiday. I enjoyed another bottle of the 2012 Chereau-Gunther Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine Comte de St. Hubert Chateau du Coing de St.Fiacre when camping in Montana. This archive TN is from January.

Purchased close to a year ago, $26 Cdn. Good natural cork. Medium lemon in color, no green! Took a while to open up but then lemon, lotsa minerals, peach.
Quite dry on initial entry, good length here, medium bodied. Dry, lemony with mineral tones as expected.
Zippy for sure with excellent acidity. Read somewhere one punter had just opened his 2004..big wow from him!

2012 Grand Fief de la Cormeraie Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine sur lie.

Last bottle of 3 purchased last winter. The wine store believes in holding back on the release of this wine.
$26 Cdn, 12 % alc, good natural cork.

Medium lemon in color, nose still very much alive. Floral, wet stones, mineral tone, citrus/gooseberry. Apples, still nice aromatics.
Initial entry thought is dry, held up nicely, good acidity and lingering finish. Mineral tones to the forefront, apple, pear. No sign this is on last legs!! Bravo.