Winemaker Notes
2015 produced an exceptional Le Clos with all of the structure to age gracefully for decades to come. Acids are ample, with complex aromatics and an elegant texture on the palate. Buds appeared late, avoiding the spring frost. The summer of 2015 was dry with average temperatures. Rainfall in early September balanced the hydric stress during heat spikes midsummer. The old vines of Le Clos performed particularly well, with harvest taking place in early September.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2015 Le Clos du Château l'Oiselinieré is a suave wine with plenty of energy. A touch spritzy on entry, there's plenty of clarity of fruit and vivacity. The wine has spent more than 30 months on lees, which has imbued a yeast note and built amplitude on the mid palate. And yet, it retains tension and has a sense of firm direction. On the finish, you can expect an almond meal character starting to develop with bottle age to add to the citrus and apple fruit.
Made famous in Muscadet, a gently rolling, Atlantic-dominated countryside on the eastern edge of the Loire, Melon de Bourgogne is actually the most planted grape variety in the Loire Valley. But the best comes from Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, a subzone of Pays Nantais. Somm Secret—The wine called Muscadet may sound suggestive of “muscat,” but Melon de Bourgogne is not related. Its name also suggests origins in Burgundy, which it has, but was continuously outlawed there, like Gamay, during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Pays Nantais, Loire’s only region abutting the Atlantic coast, is solely focused on the Melon de Bourgogne grape in its handful of subzones: Muscadet-Sèvre et Maine, Muscadet-Coteaux de la Loire and Muscadet-Côtes de Grandlieu. Muscadet wines are dry, crisp, seaside whites made from Melon de Bourgogne and are ideal for the local seafood-focused cuisine. (They are not related to Muscat.) There is a new shift in the region to make these wines with extended lees contact, creating fleshy and more aromatic versions.