Bri or someone else

Ollivier 1998 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie Clos des Briords “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – The oldest Muscadet in my cellar leaps forward a year with the demise of this bottle, but I have the feeling it’s time. It has certainly broadened, with the shells and rocks coalesced into a wide plain of sea-washed albino carapace, and there’s a throb of something that’s almost fruit-like that hasn’t been present at any previous point in this wine’s evolution. But the finish carries a whipcord of oxidation that shortens it a bit sooner than I’d like, and so I think this wine has journeyed about as far as it’s going to travel. At least, this bottle has. Since I have no more, I can’t speak to its, um, fellow travelers. (9/11)

Sheep in paradise

La Pépière 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie Les Gras Moutons “Cuvée Eden” (Loire) – Perhaps not the ideal time to be drinking this, as its bones and acids are showing without a whole lot of the flesh that was there at release. Finishes very long and with growing intensity, so there’s definitely promise. (8/11)

Lie Atwater

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – As shelled a wine as I’ve ever tasted from Ollivier, and I’ve tasted a lot of mollusks from this producer. Straightforward, and yet it dances a bit with food, changing the step when one least expects it. Undemanding, perhaps, but not at all uninteresting. (10/10)

Old currency

Bossard “Domaine de l’Ecu” 2003 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” “Expression de Gneiss” (Loire) – Thick for a Muscadet (no real surprise there), but in that thickness is a powerful, insistent minerality that has also been concentrated beyond Muscadet’s wont. Dry, then sweet, then dry again…likely, in all cases, a mere illusion of density. One could do a lot worse from mostly-oppressive French 2003s than this bottle. (9/10)

Couldn't work a "toi" in there?

Rousseau “Domaine des Trois Toits” 2007 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie (Loire) – Basic modern Muscadet, by which I mean not suffering from the dentally painful underripeness of the cheap commercial quaffing crap, but clean seaside transparency with the suggestion of fruit weight but the unlikelihood of ever identifying that fruit. For washing down bivalves, I’ll take it and enjoy myself. But it’s not Muscadet for contemplation. (8/10)

Home on the Grange

Luneau-Papin “Domaine Pierre de La Grange” 2004 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie “Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Not as together as it once was, though I don’t know if this indicates closure or deconstruction. Shells under rocks, rocks under shells, rounded-off and a little dull, yet with cracks and erosion showing. Hold longer, or drink last year? Dunno. I can’t imagine it would be falling apart already, though. (7/10)

Let's go

Luneau-Papin 1997 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie Clos des Allées “Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Brittle shells and a memory of generosities long passed. Not the best vintage to have aged this long, but it’s fine enough, and it’s worth nothing that there’s more heft and fullness after about six hours of room-temperature aeration, bringing in shiny metals and draped, desiccated fruit skins. Maybe the first sip underrates? Well, this is my last bottle, so I’ll never know more than what I’ve just written. (7/10)

Paint it black

Métaireau 1997 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie “carte noire” (Loire) – Corked. (7/10)

Sált & Pépière

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Precise, shelled, and saline. Very mild, though. (5/10)

Salt & Pèpière

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Ripe shells, rounded bones. The dryness here is a fulsome dryness, and that makes all the difference in a wine that can, at times, be spare in the tune of void. I like this for drinking now, though I’m sure there’s no real hurry either. Classic Muscadet as it should be, rather than is, and the price is absurdly low for the quality. (3/10)

Pépière steak

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Bony and spare, but with the early-maturing elegance of developed minerality. Look, this is not a wine everyone, or even most, will “get.” I’m not even sure I do, all the time. In a way, that makes it even better than it is. (3/10)

Dark Allées

Luneau-Papin 1997 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” Clos des Allées “Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Corked. (12/09)

m

Domaine de la Fruitière 2007 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Cuvée Petit M” (Loire) – Most “quaffing” Muscadet is so-labeled by commentators as a way to avoid saying that the wine’s stark and underfruited, and also lacks the mineral complexity of the best versions. The latter is definitely not the case here. In fact, if anything, there’s a whitish-yellow aggression to the palate. But there’s no real complexity, either. The wine’s good, simple, and…well, quaffable. (8/09)

Sur duke

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 1998 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Note: this is the normale, not any of the cuvees…and no, aging it this long wasn’t the intention. But as random cellar finds go, this is actually pretty interesting: fully given over to wet, almost salty seashells, with mild to medium oxidation (responses will differ) and a tan tinge to the finish. Rather than gaining complexity, this has instead moved to a different realm of simplicity than it inhabited in its youth, which isn’t necessarily unusual for Muscadet. But in any case, I don’t think I’d recommend ten years’ aging for this wine. (7/09)

Home, home on the Grange

Luneau-Papin “Domaine Pierre de La Grange” 2004 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Already showing movement in its broadening, fuller palate and increasingly shell-like minerality. It’s still sharp and forward, but less direct than it was in its youth. Long, columnar, and delicious. There’s more time left in it, but it’s very enjoyable now. (7/09)

Home on the Grange

Luneau-Papin “Domaine Pierre de La Grange” 2004 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes” (Muscadet) – Already showing signs of maturity, its sharpness softening and its seashore minerality having coalesced into pure liquid carapace, but still quite vibrant and persistent. A passionate Muscadet. (6/09)

Garden of melon

Ollivier 2004 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” “Cuvée Eden Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Forward, but…well, the broken-shell texture of the wine is harsh, and seems to be shoving hard against some unseen barrier. In a weird place right now. Hold or hold. (5/09)

Sur Lie you jest

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2006 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Drier, in some ways, than the starkest Trimbach or Beyer riesling, yet the core of this wine is friendlier and more appealing…a gently-lapping shell-covered seashore rather than a rigid column of iron. And it’s crisp without being severe. Deployed to accompany a scallop ceviche, it sings through the gaps and spaces, rather than cooperating in a duet of equals, and I think is even better for it. (1/09)

VV CV

Ollivier 2002 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sue Lie” Clos des Briords “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Tastes of paper, bones, and erosion…first whitewashed, then turning completely transparent with time in the glass. These ends the wine pursues with unwavering focus, and various attempts to dislodge it from its position with food achieve nothing. The finish is a bit of a white dwarf at the moment, but I expect broadening down the road. Well down the road. (12/08)

Salt & Pépière

Ollivier “Pépière” 2005 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Granite de Clisson (Loire) – Strikingly mineral, even for Ollivier, but there’s more: blood orange rind, tiny white berries bursting with cold fruit, salt-infused sand. A touch distended on the finish, but otherwise wow-ish. (1/08)