2014 & 2015 Muscadet: Contrasting Vintages Ripe for Discovery

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | MAY 11, 2017

The Loire’s 600 miles drain almost one-quarter of France. Even restricting attention to those stretches of the river and its immediate tributaries that are most intensively cultivated means tackling an enormous territory with wide variations in growing season, soil and cépage—to name only the most obvious factors. As one striking contrast, not only do the habitats of Sancerre and Muscadet lie 200 miles apart as the crow flies (several times that many as fish swim) and grow strikingly different grape varieties but their production methods and styles also reflect enormous cultural differences. The former looks toward Burgundy (Chablis, featuring similar soils and climate, is a mere 50 miles distant) and the latter toward the Atlantic, its wine villages clustered around a metropolis, France’s sixth largest, that styles itself as the gateway to – and spiritual capital of – Brittany, a region with its own language and distinct history. (The city of Nantes was officially separated from Brittany in 1955 to become the capital of a newly created political entity: Pays de la Loire.) Contrasts of this sort render it misleading to even refer to “The Loire” as a single wine-growing region.

Covering the Loire for Vinous

Even to take traditional regional boundaries as a basis for reports covering wines of the Loire is problematic, since, for example, those sectors of Touraine that are devoted primarily to the cultivation of Cabernet Franc – Bourgueil, Chinon and Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil – are best treated in tandem with adjacent Saumur, where that grape also plays a starring role. But to cover the Loire in reports focused on grape variety would preclude presenting discrete accounts of each important producer and his or her wines, since, for example, many of the top Saumur growers render profoundly complex wines from Chenin Blanc as well as from Cabernet Franc; and Sancerre, for all of its Sauvignon-centrism, is arguably home to France’s most important red Pinot Noirs outside of Burgundy.

I am accordingly dividing my coverage of the Loire into six reports. This first covers the Nantais, best known for – indeed, often treated as synonymous with – Muscadet, a wine sourced from Melon de Bourgogne, a grape that has traveled the world widely but achieves distinction solely in this place. Subsequent reports will cover Anjou (primarily Savennières and the dry as well as nobly sweet Chenins of the Coteaux du Layon); those appellations that feature Cabernet Franc but also grow impressive Chenin; Central Touraine (comprising Vouvray, Montlouis and the similarly Chenin-dominated Loir, spelled without the ‘e’); Eastern Touraine (whose wealth of cépages and stylistically renegade growers demand dedicated treatment); and the Sancerrois (encompassing Pouilly-Fumé and other nearby Sauvignon-dominated appellations). Along the way, I’ll touch on a few additional far-flung, isolated viticultural outposts. So, for example, this report on Muscadet sneaks in wines from two growers in the Vendée, a windswept sector along the Atlantic Coast one-third of the way from Nantes to Bordeaux. 

This first group of annual Loire reports will be unusually copious in that I am focusing on two vintages, 2014 and 2015, as well as reviewing some wines from earlier growing seasons, primarily ones that have been released by their estates over the past two years or are due for release or re-release in 2017. I conducted my tastings in the course of July and August 2016 visits to 97 Loire estates as well as, via samples, from nearly another hundred producers, between September 2016 and March 2017. Taking Muscadet and the Nantais as my starting point offers an excellent opportunity to reinforce the importance of considering the Loire in pieces, since here vintage 2014 is superlative to a degree not equaled elsewhere along the Loire. This example also illustrates why I have chosen to offer four vintage charts for the Loire, each focused on a single grape variety. These charts, which will be extensively updated with the appearance of each new report, cover Muscadet, Cabernet Franc from the Central Loire, Central Loire Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc (as grown overwhelmingly in the Sancerrois and adjacent Touraine).

Two Excellent But Very Different Vintages

Vintage 2014 is one of the finest for Muscadet in living memory. And given the stylistic vision, quality consciousness and know-how that today characterize this genre’s foremost practitioners, it’s credible to claim that no previous vintage in the Nantais has boasted so many exciting wines. Like nearly all of Northern Europe, this region experienced a surprisingly wet, cool summer, August having been particularly unseasonable and unpropitious. But a balmy, breezy September turned the tide of mildew (or, in some instances, rot) and brought a small crop to unexpected ripeness.

What distinguished the Nantais from most of viticultural Northern Europe in 2014 was that an Atlantic high-pressure system extended the sunny, windy streak into October, whereas most other Loire growing regions had to contend with the return of at least sporadic rain. The sole downside for growers of Muscadet is that the aggregate concentration of aromatic components, sugar, extract and acidity in 2014 varied inversely with juice-to-skin ratio, which kept shrinking throughout this growing season’s critical late innings. So while their wines were sensational, growers remained troubled by how little there was to sell. (A similar ratio of quality to quantity prevailed in 2012, a Muscadet vintage whose best wines rival those of 2014.)