Region: Pays Nantais, Loire, France

Varietal: 100% Melon de Bourgogne

Tasting notes: Long praised as the ultimate oyster wine—an entirely deserved reputation—Muscadet can be even more than your drink of choice to chase bivalves. Uncommonly full and rich but still sporting the crisp acidity and low alcohol that make it so sessionable, this 2022 is a Muscadet to enjoy with oysters as well as alongside seared scallops, warm mussels, or roast chicken. It fills the mouth with suspicions of honeysuckle and pulpy stone fruits, all while maintaining classic notes of iodine and sea breeze that make this the vinous equivalent of tidepooling.

Producer: Michel Brégeon is part renegade, part crusader, and full-blown terroirist. Over the years, he has become an ardent defender of the Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine terroir, the most highly regarded of the four appellations in the Pays Nantais. Thanks to his deep understanding of the nuances of the land, he plays the game much differently than the region’s caves cooperatives and negociants, who produce en masse and lose the subtlety of the appellation. Though Michel retired after the 2010 vintage, the domaine’s legacy lives on with the young vigneron, and Muscadet native, Fred Lailler. With the consult of Michel, Fred has continued the Brégeon ethic of producing wines from only the top terroirs of the region and he started the process of converting the vineyards to organic farming practices, a transition that was completed in 2019.

Vineyard and Winemaking: For seven years, he worked for his family’s domaine before setting out on his own in 1975. When his father retired in 1989, he gave his remaining vineyard land to Michel. Today, the domaine comprises 10 hectares of vineyards in clay, silica, and gabbro soils. Gabbro is old, blue-green, volcanic rock, rarely found in vineyard land. Formed by magma eruptions under the ocean floor, it is said to impart intense complexity to the domaine’s wines. His corner of the Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine, Gorges, is particularly known for this rock, and all of Michel’s vines are planted in it. His small community of vignerons is actively seeking recognition and preservation of this particular cru, called “Gorgeois.”