To paraphrase Michael Corleone: Just when I think I’ve found the greatest wine value on earth, another bottle comes along that forces me to re-calibrate. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good problem to have in the annus horribilis that is 2020, but it makes it difficult to do proper justice to a wine like Musset-Roullier’s Anjou Rouge “Les Neuf Vingt.”
Over the last few months, we’ve offered some absolute showstoppers in the $25 range, and this one is not merely the latest, but arguably the best (at least until the next one comes along). This is Loire red wine of uncommon class and complexity at this price point, a wine which—like Musset-Roullier’s Anjou Blanc back in June—catapulted to the top of our “Value of the Year” list (an unofficial, ever-changing list, but one we very much enjoy keeping). This is also a wine that is the product of a unique and enduring partnership between Gilles Musset and Serge Roullier, who decided they could make better wines by joining forces: They combined their respective family estates into a single, hyphenated juggernaut, and the wines they are turning out are pure, exhilarating, ego-free expressions of a great terroir. I think many people will be shocked by the depth, dimension, and precision of this wine at this price. For my part, I was pleased, but hardly shocked: I’ve come to expect this from Musset-Roullier, and, hard as it may be to imagine, I’m looking forward to them topping it.
Until then, I’ll be dipping periodically into my stash of this joyful, energy-packed 2018. This is the kind of pretty, juicy Loire red that shares much more in common with Burgundy than Right Bank Bordeaux—it’s un-oaked and full of soil character, but not weighed down by the excessive green-pepper savor that turns a lot of people off to Cabernet Franc. Instead it’s a well-calibrated sprinkling of wild herbs complementing the black and red fruits and violet-scented florals. Not to sound precious, but there are certain wines that really taste like they were “grown” rather than “made.” This is one of them.
Musset and Roullier, who first met about 60 years ago, at primary school in the Anjou village of La Pommeraye, both grew up to be winegrowers. Serge helmed his father’s estate (Domaine du Pélican) while Gilles founded Domaine du Chaumier with his mother. It’s slipped into a black hole of wine history, but the 1991 frost in France was real and devastating. Gilles and Serge suffered monumental losses in their vineyards, and the idea of working together became clairvoyant. Joining forces was a logical decision, a smartly financial one, but it was also a natural progression from the trenches of deep camaraderie. So, when their parents retired, Gilles and Serge, along with Gilles’ wife, formed Vignoble Musset-Roullier with the mission of making better wines than their parents.
Today, farming sustainably and organically, their collection of vines (36 hectares) extends along a fault line of the Armorican Massif. This immense geological series of compact fault lines spreads into Brittany, western Normandy, and loosely connects to the white cliffs of Dover. Thanks to these dips and cracks in the earth’s crust, an assortment of soil types emerged in La Pommeraye: green and blue schists; grey and blue limestones; gravels, sands, and shells. Close to the Loire River, the vines also benefit from water’s remarkable ability to absorb and release heat, making colder vintages a little less cold and hotter vintages a little less hot.
Today’s red, “Les Neuf-Vignt,” translates as “nine-twenty,” expressed as a fraction. This is a reference to the traditional practice of métayage (sharecropping), wherein peasants would farm vineyards for large landowners and pay rent with a portion of their crop (usually, the landlords got the best of that crop). Maybe that’s Musset and Roullier being characteristically humble, suggesting that this is some simple “peasant wine,” but don’t buy it—this 2018 is both primal and polished. In the glass, it’s a deep ruby-purple moving to magenta/pink at the rim, with perfumed aromas of black plum, Bing cherry, currants, cranberry, rosemary, sage, black pepper, and lots of violets. Medium-bodied, juicy, and tangy, it’s pure joy to drink at a cool 60 degrees in Burgundy stems, the kind of wine that seems to disappear in an instant. Splash-decant it about 15 minutes before serving with a bistro-inspired dinner of steak au poivre, roasted chicken, maybe a pâte de campagne if you really want to get in the French country spirit. Just be sure to have multiple bottles of Les Neuf-Vignt on hand, because you won’t be able to stop at one!
