Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
Among the grandest, most ageworthy wines from Pepiere's domaine, Clisson grows on granite covered in well-drained gravel. Marc Ollivier and Remi Branger grew a fragrant 2010, seemingly delicate in its leesy scents of pear, apple and tart white peach. Spend some time with the wine and you'll begin to notice how compressed it is, the rainwater freshness of the fruit hiding the firmness of its acidity, the length of flavor continuing on to a lasting memory. A great vintage of Clisson, this is lovely to drink as a young wine, and it will reward after cellaring for a decade.
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.