Here’s the thing: despite 300+ years of cultivation in the Loire Valley; cult-y underdog producers; amazing dollar-for-dollar consumption value; age-worthiness to rival good white Burgundy; and a thirsty Master Sommelier singing its praises and slaking it back in “SOMM 2,” some people still don't get that good Muscadet is very, very good.
And thank God, because wines like this would be far more expensive otherwise. But maybe no one watches wine films. Or pays attention to wine writers. I hope that’s not true, because this Master Sommelier/wine writer has jumped onto the SommSelect platform today to sing the praises of a 2013 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine from the
cru village of Château-Thébaud. Crafted by a pair of young Loire
vignerons who call themselves “Les Bêtes Curieuses,” this is ironclad proof that Muscadet can be serious, age-worthy white wine. That’s what Jérémie Huchet and Jérémie Mourat are after: wines which highlight the diverse terroirs of Muscadet via old vines, organic farming, and minimal-intervention winemaking. Château-Thébaud, where Huchet is based, is perhaps the most celebrated of Muscadet’s “communal crus,” and man, does this ’13 have it all: power, minerality, refreshment, length…the total package. And there’s still more to come! A steal at $29, if I do say so.
Melon de Bourgogne, the grape of Muscadet, is a sibling to Chardonnay and a scion of Pinot Noir. But respect has come slowly for this Burgundy variety. A brisk medieval trade existed between the monasteries of Burgundy and the Loire Valley, yet Melon’s arrival in the western Loire Valley is traditionally dated to 1709, when existing varieties in the field succumbed to a bitter winter. Banished to France’s Atlantic Coast, near the city of Nantes, Melon de Bourgogne cemented its place in the Loire Valley after phylloxera arrived in the late 1800s. The wine became “Muscadet,” confined by early 20th-century appellation law to one grape variety (Melon) and one geographic region (the countryside surrounding Nantes). It ballooned in popularity and production. Muscadet was oyster wine: a tart, lemony sidekick to slurp down with the region’s bountiful seafood. The already neutral flavor profile of Muscadet narrowed as vineyard yields skyrocketed, and by the late 20th century the Muscadet image was frozen in its tracks. In this way Muscadet was homogenized, and most bottles tasted the same.
Yet centuries after Burgundy fragmented, Muscadet began to do the same. Producers realized that there were competing geological forces at work under the Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine AOC—the most important of four Muscadet AOCs—and began to explore them. Domaine de l’Ecu, Domaine de la Pépière, and others started experimenting, first by bottling soil types separately, then by carving out “crus” within the region. It’s a work in progress, but it’s fascinating. Château Thébaud is the smallest among them. It’s a village situated on the Maine River, atop a bed of granite, just south of Nantes. They don’t fancy new oak here, but to use the Château-Thébaud designation on a label, one must age the wine on its lees for at least two years—a requirement that far surpasses the maximum standard for sur lie bottling in Muscadet. (Today’s stunner, from 50-year-old, head-trained vines, spent closer to five years resting on the lees, without bâtonnage, prior to release.)
The best efforts combine the textural richness that lees aging delivers and a little of that heady rising-dough-bakeshop scent with the racy, crystalline, saline character that good Muscadet can deliver. Kind of like spindly Chablis without the lactic note. Pull the cork on today’s 2013 and let it blossom for a bit rather than slurp it down: It’s a bright and relatively deep straw-gold in the glass, bursting forth with notes of yellow apple, white peach, sea spray, smoke, crushed oyster shells…all in all the perfect mix of fruit and earth in a wine that is focused, compact, tactile, and just super-satisfying all around. It may go without saying that this is a seafood white extraordinaire: Splash it in a decanter for 15 minutes before serving in all-purpose white wine stems at 45-50 degrees. It may seem lazy to suggest oysters, but really, why mess with perfection?
