3/14/26 - 

Enjoying a great Muscadet at ten to thirty years of age, with a nice piece of fish, is one of the great, simple pleasures of the wine world. Two new releases from Rémi and Gwénaëlle at Domaine de la Pépière are perfect examples of great Muscadet that belong in your cellar. Of course they can be enjoyed as young wines, but at ten years they will really start singing! Today's offer also includes a great wine for aging from Jo Landron, and some current favorites for immediate enjoyment...
 
Domaine de la Pépière
Marc Ollivier, a native of La Pépière, created the estate in 1984. Through hard work and great intelligence, Marc slowly enlarged the estate, acquiring nearby parcels with old vines and great terroir. Harvests were always by hand and fermentations occured with wild yeasts, a rarity at the time. With the help of Gwénaëlle Croix and Rémi Branger, the domain converted to organic and Biodynamic agriculture, becoming one of the leading estates of the Loire Valley. Marc was instrumental in developing the Cru Communal system in Muscadet, highlighting the best terroirs, with long sur-lie aging, producing two of the outstanding wines we feature today - Clisson and Château Thébaud.
 
2023 Cru Clisson - Tasted in February 2026, this superb wine showed classic, vibrant aromas of almond, pear, citrus and stone, with a full-bodied, very mineral palate with subtle white fruits and a long bright stony finish. Relatively high in alcohol and density but balanced by firm acidity, this is a great Clisson that will give fabulous drinking from 2033 to 2045. Some notes from Rémi Branger: "Regarding the 2023 Clisson, we can describe it as a classic harvest in terms of timing, involving the picking of parcels located above the estate - "La Tisonnière," "Tintin," "Maurice" and "Sur le Chemin." We harvested the Clisson on September 14th; these parcels yielded the highest potential sugar levels of the 2023 vintage, with a value measured at harvest close to 13.6%.  There were hot temperatures during the first week of picking, but during the week we harvested the Clisson, temperatures were much more moderate and we experienced no rainfall during the harvest. Vinification proceeded quite rapidly thereafter, with fermentation lasting approximately one month. Subsequently, during the élevage, the wine underwent bâtonnage once, during April 2024 and was bottled after two years on the lees."
 
2022 Cru Château Thébaud - Tasted with Gwénaëlle in February, this beautiful wine from a very warm vintage, showed a quite subtle and elegant nose with floral, herbal, citrus, pear and stone aromas. The palate was full, round and ripe with terrific length and bright acidity, in a more delicate style than the 2023 Clisson. Some explanation from Rémi: "the 2022 vintage was the second-earliest in the estate's history, with the harvest commencing on August 24th. The 2022 vintage presented its challenges: a few days of frost in the spring were followed by abundant sunshine and heat—a hot summer marked by very little rainfall—though a welcome 35 mm downpour on August 15th provided significant relief. The parcels designated for the Château Thébaud Cru, (specifically "La Morine." "Le Coteau" and "Le Coteau de la Roche") were harvested on August 26th and 28th. From these parcels, we harvested grapes of "normal" size—a result that clearly demonstrated the beneficial effects of the mid-August rainfall, as well as the influence of the distinct soil compositions found in these plots. The potential sugar levels at harvest indicate a value slightly above 12%. Fermentation lasted approximately 25 days; during the aging process, we performed bâtonnage in June 2023 and April 2024, after which we bottled the wine in November 2025, following three years of aging on its lees." This lovely wine will be delicious young due to the lovely combination of ripeness with low alcohol and bright acidity, but those willing to wait 15 to 20 years will be amply rewarded...
 
More Domaine de la Pépière for current drinking:

2023 Les Gras Moutons - This great vineyard is on gneiss, in layers that permit a deep penetration by the vines, with sandy clay and amphibolite stones. The vines are at the top of a hill and on the south facing slope overlooking the Maine.  This terroir produces lovely, classic Muscadet to drink young or after short-term cellaring of 5 to 10 years. (although a 2009 opened recently was brilliant) The nose is subtle but complex with a lovely melange of peach, pear, melon, lemon verbena, dried herbs and wet stone. The palate is marked by a nice bitter minerality underlying white fruits and citrus flavors. The finish is pure, clean and refreshing, perfectly balanced at 12% alcohol.

2025 Pépie "Mise Precoce" - In certain years, in this case 2025, Pépière bottles a part of the vintage in December immediately following the harvest for early release. The 2025 Mise Precoce is a bit softer than the 2024 Pépie with lovely round white fruits, citrus and stone flavors, showing the perfect ripeness of the 2025 vintage in the Loire. It's a lovely wine and will happily keep us supplied with Pépie until the "sur lie" is released this spring. 
 
(The name "Pépière" comes from "pépie" - to be thirsty. Bedrock is exposed in many places; the terrain is very dry and stony, and water has always been a scarce commodity. In times past, the various wells in the village were insufficient to provide water for both the inhabitants and their livestock. Indeed, is this why the villagers had a reputation for drinking more wine than was reasonable?) - Pépière website

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Domaine Landron

2023 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine "Les Houx"  This is always one of my favorite Muscadet due to its crackling acidity and great mineral flavors. "The characteristic expression of this terroir—composed of sandstone and a subsoil of weathered rock—reveals stony, slightly smoky aromas. The palate is fruity, reminiscent of peach, yet also highly structured, complex, and persistent, with a gentle bitterness that suggests an aging potential of five years." From the Landron website, and we couldn't agree more...

2020 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine "Le Fief du Breil" Jo Landron's "Fief du Breil" is a truly great Muscadet, coming from a beautiful, walled vineyard sloping towards the Sèvre, with clay, sand and quartz stones over a bedrock of orthogneiss. "The nose is just beautiful, with a wonderfully fine leesy character, with confident aromatics reminiscent of elderflower, vanilla and crushed chalk. Such elegance on the palate, feeling supple and polished, but with super energy and finessed acidity, before it concludes with a long and lightly bitter finish." - Chris Kissack
 
Domaine de la Parentière

2023 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Vieilles Vignes  Michel and Guilhaume Ménager produce this lovely Musacdet on their tiny estate near Vallet, which they have tended organically for more than 40 years. The sub-soil is gabbro, a type of basalt, that gives a unique aromatic quality to the wine, quite different from wines produced on the normal granite or gneiss/schiste soils of Muscadet.

2018 Vin de France Les 4 Vents - Cuvée Excellence - This fascinating wine, named after a parcel of old vines, is a beautiful demonstration of the Ménager's great farming and the unique terroir. Made from 100% Melon de Bourgogne, the wine was aged 66 months on the lees and an additional 6 months in bottle. The result is a stunning wine with balanced acidity, luxurious mouthfeel and enough structure for additional aging.

-David Lillie

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