Pépière farms certified organic in the Loire, and the mix of gravel, clay, sand, and granite under forty-year-old Melon de Bourgogne vines gives this 2023 more grip than the grape usually gets credit for. Direct-pressed, fermented with native yeasts in stainless, then aged on its lees in underground glass-lined vats until spring. Nothing added, nothing dressed up. Saline, citrus-driven, with a chalky mid-palate that keeps going; this is what Muscadet tastes like when someone actually cares.
Winemaker Notes
The fruit is direct pressed and the juice settles naturally for 12 hours. It is then fermented in stainless steel tanks with natural yeasts; the wine is aged on its lees in large, underground glass-lined vats until bottling the following spring. S02 additions are three to five grams after alcoholic fermentation with a possible adjustment at bottling.
About the Producer
Thank you to importer Louis/Dressner and Jules Dressner for this profile of Pépière : (Click here for Louis/Dressner's Pépière notes and photos from visits and interviews) It feels strange re-writing profiles like Pépière’s. Almost like erasing the past, a past I was only tangentially part of! Joe and Denyse first visited Marc Ollivier in 1989. They likely began selling his 1988 in NYC shortly thereafter. Kevin McKenna, an equal partner at LDM since 1995, was their first customer for it when he was the buyer at Astor! It was our first Loire wine! I was three years old! But the Pépière profile…
