Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine "Gorges"

France
Loire
2019

100% Melon de Bourgogne. From 1.67 hectares in the cru of Gorges, the newest addition to the Pepière estate, a plot forever farmed and sold to them by esteemed vigneron Michel Brégeon. Gorges is a departure for Pepière: it is the furthest away from the village and home vineyards and more importanly is the only one without granite-based soils. Instead, Gorges features gabbro, a formation of volcanic basalt; wines from this cru are among the firmest, most structured and mineral in all of Muscadet. Pepière's Gorges plot is certified-organic and soon to be certified-biodynamic, in line with their farming estate-wide. These vines were planted in the late 1960s and early 1970s and are worked and harvested by hand. As for all Pepière wines, the clusters are direct-pressed and the juice settled naturally for 12 hours. It is then fermented spontaneously with native yeasts only in stainless steel. The wine is aged on its lees in large, underground, glass-lined cement tanks, in the case of Gorges for about 3 years (which disqualifies it from the "sur lie" designation). It is bottled without fining or filtering. 

95 points
"Some of the finest old Muscadet bottlings I have drunk were the Gorges bottlings from Domaine Michel Brégeon, now run by Frédéric Lailler since Michel’s retirement. Domaine de la Pépière rents 1.67 hectares of vines in the Gorges vineyard as well, which are farmed by Monsieur Lailler (while the Pépière team looks after the Lailler vines in the vineyard of Clisson during the growing season). The 2019 Gorges from Domaine de la Pépière is simply outstanding, offering up a vibrant and already very expressive bouquet of breadfruit, lemon, sweet leesy tones, briny marine notes, lemongrass and a beautiful base of minerality from the basalt soils of this vineyard. On the palate the wine is zesty, full-bodied and mineral-driven in personality, with an outstanding core of fruit, a fine spine of acidity, excellent focus and balance and a very long, complex and extremely classy finish. This is a great young Muscadet! 2023-2065. "
John Gilman,
View From The Cellar
September 2023

SKU/Code: 
DB5800-19
Product Line: 
Wine
White
Varietal: 
Melon de Bourgogne
Farming Type: 
Organic