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)

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)

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)

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)

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)