Two of the Best Values in the World of Wine

by

I didn’t expect it would affect people so powerfully. 

It wasn’t because I didn’t like the wine. I did. It was because I didn’t think the drinkers and diners at that fancy restaurant—a representative sampling of the drinkers and diners of any city in North America—would like it as much as I do.

I added two quality bottlings of the wine to that list because any serious wine list should include at least one or two of them. Both of the bottlings I added were made by one of the best estates in the wine’s region. I expected the restaurant’s drinkers and diners to order the wines because of their affordability. I didn’t expect those drinkers and diners to fall head over heels in love with them.

This, my dear fellow worshippers in the cult of Dionysus, is a story about Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie. An old-world name for an old world wine. “But what,” you ask me, “do all of the parts of its appellation mean?”

Muscadet is the principle name of the wine, which is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape in the Nantais, the wine subregion in the far west of the Loire Valley. The majority of Muscadet vineyards are south of the Loire River’s mouth at the Atlantic Ocean. The best Muscadet vineyards are in the Sèvre et Maine, which is south and east of the city of Nantes. Lie is French for lees, the dead yeast cells which gather at the bottom of a tank or cask after a wine has completed fermenting. Sur Lie means the wine is aged on its lees, a practice which adds body and flavor to the wine.

A quality Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie offers aromas and flavors of meadow hay and Anjou pear. Its acidity, minerality and salinity are bracing, but its texture is creamy and yeasty. Its character bares its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Loire River. Its body is light. Its alcohol is low. It isn’t fruity. It isn’t sweet. It is the epitomical dry white wine.

The two quality bottlings of Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie I added to my wine list at that fancy restaurant are both made by Domaine de la Pépière. The first is called La Pépie. The second is Clos des Briords Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. La Pépie is a classic of the style, and Domaine de la Pépière cultivates its vineyards organically. A bottle of the wine costs less than $20. Clos des Briords Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is made from the estate’s oldest vineyards, which Domaine de la Pépière cultivates biodynamically. The bedrock of its vineyard is Granite de Chateau Thébaud. Because of the fissures in this kind of granite, the roots of the vineyard penetrate deeply into the bedrock. This benefits the character and quality of the wine. A bottle of it costs less than $25. Both of these two bottings from Domaine de la Pépière represent two of the best wine values I know of.

What lesson did the drinkers and diners at that fancy restaurant teach me? That Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie is right for all kinds of occasions, all kinds of palates and all kinds of people. I serve it with light hors’d'oeuvres at cocktail parties. I serve it with primi piatti at dinner parties. And I always — always, always, always — have a bottle of it in my refrigerator through the months of summer.