Enjoy summertime with Muscadet

[Nicklasss]

Sunny days and some heat is now installed up north. I'm sitting outside, in that nice evening comfortable weather, enjoying every minute i can as I snow will be there in less than 5 mouths.

Tonight, MC cooked some very nice sea scallops, one of our favorite seafood, with a creamy lemon sauce, and a basilik oil to put on top. Delicious! I should have taken a picture, and post it here so everyone could have look the meal upside down!

With that, I opened a basic Muscadet from the Lieubeau family in Loire, owners of Chateau Thiebaud. It is a fresh young 2016, with a specific label related to Jules Vernes stories, as he was born in that area. Light yellow color, Muscadet is a bit like Sauternes, not well known. Also like Beaujolais, snob people avoid it. But Muscadet is a genuine uncomplicated white wine, most of the time rewarding, and that can age gracefully for 7-10 years. Nose of fresh green berry grape, starfruit, melon and green lemon. In mouth, very dry, mineral, but still having fresh herbs and green melon flavours, light bitterness, long shell mineral finish. Very nice. Of course, limited at the same time, but I guess that wines from melon de bourgogne need to stay that way to shine. I will buy more as I prefer that type of wine to any (more complex?) oaky heavy low acidity white wines. Tn: 87.

Clearly, I will always prefer the white wines produced at that lattitude (Muscadet, Saumur, Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre, Chablis, Alsace Riesling) and unoaked. And my taste on red changes sometime, but for white, it stayed the same for the last 22 years.

Any other Muscadet lovers around here?

Nic

[RPCV]

Count me in as a lover of Muscadet. We opened a magnum of the 2004 Pepiere Briordes VV a few weeks back. Lovely, mineral-laden wine with citrus and flower aromas. Thirst quenching wine that was great on its own on a hot summers day.

[AKR]

I like it with seafood, although we never seem to have any around the house.

[chris kissack]

I can't resist replying to a Muscadet post on a Bordeaux forum!

I love Muscadet, both the traditional fresh mineral-laced traditional style, and the more textural cru communal wines, which are different in style.

The Jules Verne label Muscadets made by the Lieubeau family are the most fun labels ever. There are three in the series - one each for 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and a third for Five Weeks in a Balloon - although the wine in each is the same. The wine inside is good, honest, entry-level Muscadet, which when I last spoke to Vincent Lieubeau was really intended for bistro drinking, and their many trade customers around Nantes were snapping it up. It sounds like they may be exporting it as well (I'm not sure where you are).

Here's a pic of one of them:



Just a quick word on Château-Thébaud; The Lieubeau family own several properties including Château de l'Aulnaye, Château de la Bourdinière, Château de la Placelière and Domaine de la Fruitière, but not Château-Thebaud which is not a property, but a village in the southern part of the Muscadet appellation, and one of the new crus communaux appellations. It isn't quite ratified yet, but the dossier is currently under review and it should be signed off by the INAO in the next few months (I hope!).

[Nicklasss]

Thanks for these information Mr. Kissack. This is exactly the wine. I already had the Chateau Thebaud, and it is a richer style and better Muscadet from the same family, but still with the "shell" minerality.

Count me as a fan of Muscadet as well. Great with any seafood.

Regards,

Nic

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Yes.

[AKR]

Great comments and label pictures. Thanks for sharing.