Pépière 2025 Muscadet La Pépie Mise Précoce

100% Melon de Bourgogne. Classic Muscadet, primarily from granite soils with a small percentage on gneiss. The core of the "La Pépie" Sur Lie bottling is the 10-hectare heart of the Pépière estate, which is part of the Clisson cru in the tiny commune of Pépière near the winery; there is also a significant percentage of their cru Château Thébaud fruit. Farming is certified-organic or Biodynamic and the harvest is by hand. Normally, Pépie is aged and bottled starting at around 6 and up to 8 months, but in certain years, in this case 2025, Pépière bottles a part of the vintage in December immediately following the harvest for earlier release. The wine has historically been referred to--though not labeled--as mise précoce, literally "bottled early." Pépière distinguishes their mise précoce visibly in two subtle ways: using a Burgundy bottle rather than the usual flute and labeling it, as required by law, as  "Muscadet" rather than "Muscadet-Sur-Lie" (the latter requires bottling in March-December of the year following the vintage). The 2025 is a bit softer than the 2024, 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.