Domaine de la Pepiere, Clos des Briords Muscadet 2022

The estate produces this great wine from very old vines on a superb terroir of Château Thébaud granite with a thin layer of very porous sandy clay soil. When young, the wine is atomospheric, like sea air on a rocky coast. It ages for twenty to thirty years, always maintaining it's brisk acidity.

Marc Olliviers first commercial vintage of Pepiere was 1985 - in the decades since, Pepiere has become the standard-bearer for naturally grown Muscadet, a region where historically little consideration was given to chemical-free agriculture, individual terroir expression or the potential ageability of the wines. Pepieres various sites are rich in granite and gneiss in differing stages of decomposition into sand, clay and rocks; the vines range in age from 20 to over 100 years old. Farming is organic; yields are kept low; harvest and all other work is by hand (all rare in the region). Fruit is harvested and pressed in whole clusters; long, slow fermentations take place with indigenous yeasts and minimal sulfur in the cold cellar. Each wine ages sur lie, mainly in underground tanks, with extended lees contact for the cru bottlings, and is bottled without fining or filtering. Their intensity, complexity and age-worthiness defy Muscadet stereotypes and Ollivier has taken on partners Remi Branger and Gwanaelle Croix over the last decade to help ensure that the high Pepiere standard is maintained well into the future.