Domaine de la Pépière "La Pepie" Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine Sur Lie, Loire Valley, France 2023

FROM LOUIS/DRESSNER:

THE WINE: 100% Melon de Bourgogne. Classic Muscadet on granite. 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 typically, as well as some purchased fruit from a nearby organic farmer friend in the mix. Farming is certified-organic and the harvest by hand. As for Pépière wines, the clusters are direct-pressed and the juice settled for 12 hours. It is fermented in stainless steel tanks with natural yeasts; the wine is aged on its lees in large, underground, glass-lined cement tanks for up to a year. Sulfuring is minimal. The first bottling is from wine with about 4 months on the lees; subsequent bottlings have spent up to 8 months on the lees.

THE PRODUCER: Ollivier’s Muscadet-sur-Lie is the authentic item — it has lees contact until the time of bottling generally in late May. This extended contact gives it the crispness that makes Muscadet so refreshing, and the classic wine match for seafood. It is the traditional way to make but has become the exception as growers and shippers rush to bottle “technically correct” wines by early January.

In this rush to bottle, Muscadet producers use special “starter” yeasts (which often also add flavors and aromas) to accelerate fermentation and enzymes or other techniques to finish the wine early. Sterile filtration is in rampant use. Ollivier takes his time. He hand harvests (also a rarity in the region), uses natural yeasts, waits for the wine to finish and bottles with a very light filtration. The vineyards are in old vines (40 years and older) with a particularly good exposition on a plateau overlooking the river Sèvre. All the vineyards are from original stock: Ollivier is the only grower in the Muscadet who does not have a single clonal selection in his vineyards.