Gilles Musset and Serge Roullier first met about 60 years ago, at primary school in the Anjou village of La Pommeraye. Serge later helmed his father’s estate (Domaine du Pélican) while Gilles founded Domaine du Chaumier with his mother. After both experiencing devastating crop losses during an infamous frost event in 1991, they decided to merge their estates: When their parents retired, Gilles and Serge, along with Gilles’ wife, formed Vignoble Musset-Roullier.

Their vineyards extend along a fault line of the Armorican Massif. This immense geological series of compact faults creates an assortment of soil types in Anjou: green and blue schists; gray and blue limestones; gravels. “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. Hand-harvested grapes are destemmed, briefly cold macerated, then fermented on indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks. Aging is in tank only, for 15 months.

This ’21 is 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 violets. Medium-bodied, juicy, and tangy, it’s pure joy at 60 degrees in Burgundy stems. 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.