Domaine La Pepiere - Les Gras Moutons, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Loire, France (2021)

TASTING NOTES

While a little reserved on the nose, this wine explodes on the palate with a lovely tension between crisp apples and kiwi fruits with a punch of salinity, yeasty notes and mustard seeds. A long, long finish with a pleasant bitter bite.

Since founder and long-term winemaker Marc Olivier retired in 2019, his hand-picked protégées Rémi Branger and Gwénaëlle Croix have carried on the pioneering work they started with him over ten years ago.

Along with converting to biodynamic farming and more judicious applications of sulphites - the two stand-out features of the domaine are pushing the standard nine months of lees aging to three, four and even five years and a focus on single vineyard bottlings. 

Despite having some of the most varied terroirs and micro-climates in all of France, it remains a region of scale and bulk dominated by large négociant operations. Domaine La Pepiere vinifies each of their parcels separately with the crus of Clisson, Monnières-Saint Fiacre, Château-Thébaud and Gorges.

Gras Moutons is a lieu-dit made up of two parcels totaling 1.8 hectares in the cru of Monnières-Saint Fiacre. The soils consist of sand, limestone and gneiss. The constant winds in the area make for grapes that have to be harvested later than the rest. While released young, this wine always benefits from a few years in bottle. Monnieres-St-Fiacre is the first officially designated cru in Muscadet. The vines were planted in 1948, 1984 and 1991.