Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Part of the region’s Cru Communaux, the Comte Leloup is 7.4 acres of vines that are more than 100 years old. Bernard Chéreau ferments the wine in stainless steel and ages it on the lees for ten months, followed by at least two years in bottle. The vines, growing in schist and slate, deliver fruit with smoky depths, the wine lasting on ripe peach, honeydew and bitter melon, all of its richness wrapped in juicy tart-apple freshness. It’s broad and intense, floral and savory, a wine to decant for a roasted whole fish stuffed with fennel.
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.