Miraculous Muscadet from Pépière, Jo Landron, Branger and Parentière!
3/28/2025
Today's email features the two giants of Muscadet, Domaine de la Pépière and Jo Landron's Domaine de la Louvetrie along with the important domain of Claude and Sébastien Branger in Maisdon and a newcomer to the US, the Menager family's Domaine de la Parentière in Vallet, all certified organic and/or biodynamic.
Domaine de la Parentière has been organic for three generations, finally receiving organic certification in 1984. Michel Menager and his son Guilhaume are proud of their work - organic in the vineyard, harvesting by hand and fermentations with wild yeasts, and never chaptalizing. They have 5 hectares of old vines in Vallet on "gabbro" terroir - a unique basalt-type stone that gives a distinctive and unique flavor to the wines (as found in Gorges at Domaine Bregeon and Domaine de la Pépière). Their wines are always low in alcohol, ranging from 10 to 12.5% and possess a wonderful purity and bright refreshing acidity.
Today's offer features the first release of Parentière's incredible 2018 Vin de France "Les Quatre Vents - Cuvée Excellence" that spent 66 months sur-lie before bottling! Long sur-lie aging was often done with special barrels of Muscadet in the 19th century and that tradition has been revived with the new Cru Communal Muscadets. This extraordinary wine from distinctive Gabbro terroir is wonderfully dense and complex, truly a Grand Cru of Muscadet, and for $19.99...!
We've been enjoying the beautiful wines of Jo Landron for more than 30 years! (How come he looks almost the same now as he did in 1990?) We're very happy to have the scintillating 2022 "Amphibolite" back on the shelf, named after a metamorphic stone generally formed from gabbro or basalt, with a high concentration of iron and magnesium, prevalent in the vineyard, over a bedrock of gneiss. In France, this seems to be the "official" oyster wine, with low alcohol and tasting of sea spray and stones. Jo's 2022 Cuvée La Louvetrie is silky and delicious for current drinking; his 2021 Melonix, made with minimal added SO2 and the malo-lactic done, offers a decidedly different and intriguing side of Muscadet, and also returning this week is the extraordinary 2018 "Fiefs du Breil," Jo's most serious wine from a great enclosed vineyard of clay, sand and quartz stones over a bedrock of orthogneiss…
One of our favorite wines from Jo has always been "Les Houx" (known as "Hermine D'Or" until the 2010 vintage) from a great parcel of thin sandy clay soils, rich with silica, quartz and iron, over a bedrock of gneiss and clay, close to the "Fief du Breil." Kept on the lees for 12 months and now aged partially in amphora. 2021 is a superb vintage for "Les Houx" with the low yields and high acidity giving a vibrant mineral character to the wine.
Old vines at Parentière after spring plowing
Remi Branger and Gwénaëlle Croix are continuing the great work of our friend Marc Ollivier at Domaine de la Pépière, where biodynamic farming, (aided by the team in the picture above) great terroir and superb winemaking combine to create some of the finest wines in the Loire. We enjoyed a bottle of the 2022 Clisson a few weeks ago - it's simply a great bottle of Muscadet with beautiful density, good acidity and elegant fruit and mineral flavors that will be at its best from 2035 - 2045. Sensational now as well, but a bit of a shame to drink it young... For current drinking, open the 2023 Pépie - we think it's the best in the last few years. We have about 7 cases left of the last shipment - more arrives in late April, but will there be tarifs? We consulted the US Government's most trusted source and it said "ask again later."
Sébastien Branger is now in charge at Domaine Claude Branger (Yes, they're related to Rémi Branger at Pépière) whose large parcel of "Les Gras Moutons" is in Saint Fiacre, on rocky gneiss soil, only 6-14 inches deep, in a seam of amphibolite. The vines were planted between 1930 and 1986, and average more than 50 years old. The 2022 "Terroir Les Gras Moutons" certainly equals the great quality of the Pépière wine from the same vineyard and is capable of 10 to 15 years of aging. Highly recommended!
