Why Muscadet is enjoying a revival

Fief Guérin Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu Sur Lie, Loire, France 2017 (£7.49, Waitrose) It may have something to do with growing up right by an estuary. But for me a definition of comforting luxury is a Saturday lunchtime spent by marshy wetland mudflats watching birds and boats over a plate of seafood with a white wine as cold, bracing and salty as the air. This is a luxury made affordable if the seafood is bought from a seafood shack or smokehouses with a BYO policy – and if the wine you bring along with you is muscadet. Still one of France’s more under-appreciated wine styles, muscadet itself hails from an estuarine area, in vineyards around Nantes at the western end of the River Loire. Under-appreciated, and therefore very good value, too, with Fief Guérin’s version having just the right level of almost-tart lipsmacking salted-citrussiness that I’m looking for in my shellfish-accompanying tumbler.

Domaine Bruno Cormerais Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Vieilles Vignes Sur Lie, Loire, France 2015 (£12.95, Lea & Sandeman) The modern story of Muscadet has rather a lot in common with a red wine region from the opposite side of the country, Beaujolais. Both were international French bistro and supermarket staples that fell victim to their own popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when producers ramped up the yields until quality suffered and they fell out of favour. But both are now home to some of the most adventurous producers in France, who, in their different ways, are making seriously high-quality wines that offer an affordable alternative to the increasingly pricey wines of Burgundy. With skilled winemakers working with older vines on the right soils, the melon de bourgogne gape can be almost chablis-esque in its combination of raciness and minerals and, as it ages, savouriness, as Domaine Cormerais’ pristine subtly herbal expression deliciously shows.

Jo Landron Clos de la Carizière, Muscadet Sèvere et Maine Sur Lie 2017 (from £14.95, Vino Vero; Les Caves de Pyrene) Another factor in the vast improvement of contemporary Muscadet is that producers have grown obsessed – as is the modern fine-wine way all over the world – with their soils. A pioneer was Domaine l’Ecu’s Guy Bossard, who bottled electrifyingly pure and nervy cuvées grown on and named after specific soil types such as Granite or Orthogneiss – wines that, as the luminous 2017 Granite (£24.83, Tannico) proves, are no less thrilling and ageworthy when made by Fred Niger, owner since 2012. Other producers worth following around an array of different melon de Bourgogne styles produced on different soils include Jo Landron, with the wonderfully precise, long and fine Clos de la Carizière, with its seashells and salts and citrus; and Domaine Luneau-Papin, with the more savoury-salty, subtle and racy Domaine du Verger Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2017 (£12.73, Les Caves de Pyrene).

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