Great Gros Plant from Luneau-Papin

7/17/2008 -

It's officially a no-brainer. The Luneau-Papin Gros Plant will be in my fridge all summer and should be in yours. In Nantes the grape of choice is Melon de Bourgogne which is the principal grape in Muscdet, but there is also another grape that does not get as much attention.

That is Gros Plant or Folle Blance depending who you are talking to. In it's Folle Blanche incarnation it is a grape used in the production of Armagnac and CognacThe 2007 Luneau-Papin Gros Plant du Pays Nantais "Sur Lie" is made from 100% Folle Blanche grown on a 6 hectare parcel of gravelly schiste soils in the commune of Le Landreau. The vines are 40 years old (and older) and are hand-harvested. There is a short cold soak and then a long, slow fermentation at low temperature followed by aging on the lees and bottling in the Spring.

In the Loire Valley though it typically makes a crisp, mineral and sometimes tart table wine. But in the hands of  Pierre Luneau it turns into this magical summer sipper. On a hot summer night I brought a bottle of this to Grand Sichuan (midtown outpost) and it enchanted everybody at the table. It has a lovely nose of citrus fruits and some light mineral . . . .but this wine is much more about high acidity and lovely pure citrus fruit. It is no where close to being as mineral as muscadet but that is more than made up for in the incredible amount of fruit. This wine is like fireworks exploding in your mouth. But the fireworks are every citrus fruit under the rainbow backed up my serious - -and I mean - - serious acidity but the fruit softens it a bit. There is a tartness but I find it very appealing in a sweet tart type of way. Most importantly it went lovely with all the food and was just so damn gulpable.