Pays Nantais

Muscadet

More white wine is made in the Pays Nantais then Anjou and Touraine combined and more than a quarter of the entire Loire harvest. The rise of the Nantais wine market coincided with the move of the dutch wine buyers out of Charente the home of Cognac because of the export duties on wine. The city of Nantes had levied no duties and the dutch already trading in Anjou wine persuaded the Nantais growers to switch to white wine. The Melon de Bourgogne or Muscadet wine has no relation to Muscat but is instead a cousin of the Gamay, it suffers little from frost and ripens early which is essential for the breton climate. Until the 1950s muscadet was a pleasant region wine for drinking within the year and could be found only locally, it was seldom seen out of the region, even in other parts of france, then it exploded on the international scene. It is a white equivalent of Beaujolais, light, refreshing, uncomplicated, and inexpensive.

Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine

Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine is named after the two small rivers, Le Sevre Nantaise and La Petite Maine. The Sevre-et-Maine is a compact undulating district, with a predominantly clay soil mixed with sand and gravel. At its center, at La Haie-Fouassiere it is worth climbing the little hill of Moulin du Breil, from its summit there is an excellent panorama of the entire area. This is the source for three quarters of the muscadet wine and most of the best.

Other Appellations

Muscadet des Coteaux de La Loire lies on both banks of the Loire north east of the city of Nantes, between Mauves in the west and Saint-Florent-Le-Vieil in the east, with Ancenis as its center. The soil here contains less clay and more limestone resulting in a more primeur style of wine then Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine. Muscadet Cotes de Grand Lieu a new appellation created in 1994 is southwest of Nantes, centered around the Lac de Grand-Lieu. The soil is more sandy than Serve-et-Maine and the wine is more light and forward. Plain Muscadet is found south and southwest of the city of Nantes.

Muscadet sur lie

Sur lie means literally ‘on the lees’ and denotes a wine left on its lees throughout the winter before being bottled usually in the spring, by law it has to be bottled before July first. The rationale behind sur lie is two-fold. Muscadet is a fairly light anonymous wine and the process of letting the wine feed of its dead yeast cells will allow the wine to gain an extra element of richness and character, also if the wine is left undisturbed in its original fermentation tank some of the carbon released by the original and malolactic fermentations will be retain as carbonic acid, thus the bottle will have a light sparkle, which will confer an extra crispness and freshness to the wine. Genuine sur lie cannot be fined and in some cases is not filtered. Sur lie require modern fermenting and storage equipment as well as a high standard of cleanliness if the lees themselves are not clean then the wine will be ruined. Since the 1980s most growers in the Sevre-et-Maine have changed to making wine sur lie. Muscadet at its best should be dry without being lean, should have reasonable fullness without being fat or oily and if sur lie it should have a suggestion of yeasty richness.

If you like this article please press the green button below.
If you want to see more articles like this follow my Collection.
If you want to see all of my articles check out my author page.
My blog has this information and other drinks articles