This might be our new favorite Muscadet. Incredibly fresh and zippy, with bright aromatics and a structured minerality. This is an impressively pure and refreshing expression in a category that is often dismissed simply as "food wine" and not given the attention it deserves. From the winemaker: "This is a beautiful half hectare parcel, planted by my Grandfather 60 years ago. It's on silty soils, but deeper and richer- over sandstone and orthogneiss. It's south-facing, sloping towards the river. The wine is made very simply, the same as the others, but aged 28 months in concrete tank, and bottled with no additions." ABOUT THE WINEMAKER After leaving France and working on vineyards in both Chile and New Zealand, as well as a couple stints closer to home in Montlouis, Manu and Marion returned to the family estate. However, instead of simply working with his father, Jo Landron — one of the top producers in Muscadet — and slowly taking the reigns, he and his wife, Marion Pescheux decided to strike out on their own in 2013. So, with the help of Jo, they pieced together 7.5ha of vines (including some top parcels in the AOC) and put what they had learned working for the likes of Louis Antoine-Luyt, Lise and Bertrand Jousset, and Xavier Weisskopf of Le Rocher des Violettes. They are certified organic and deeply committed to biodynamic farming, as it is almost exclusively what they learned. Orthogeiss, amphibolite, and gneiss soils are the building blocks for their wines, and in the cellar traditional underground concrete tanks are used for debourbage (settling) before racking into smaller concrete vats for fermentation and elevage. All of the wines are allowed to go through malolactic fermentation, and minimal, if any sulfur is added.
