Wine with Leslie: Muscadet is very much back en vogue
Pic: iStock
News from our Celtic neighbours is that Brittany is getting a new vineyard near the town of Lorient founded by winemaker (and native Breton) Romain Le Guillou who spent many years in Champagne working for Krug and others.
He is planting right now — expect Chenin, Chardonnay and fizz. This will be the closest French vineyard to Ireland and easy to visit via Brittany Ferries’ Cork-Roscoff route.
Lorient is known to many Irish people with an interest in traditional music as it is the home of the massive Festival Interceltique de Lorient every August.
The festival was founded in 1971 by Polig Monjarret who I met many times as he was a close friend of my wife’s family. Polig once admonished me for suggesting that there were no Breton wines — he very quickly
reminded me that the Pays Nantais (e.g. Muscadet) was still utterly Breton, even if the collaborationist Vichy government in 1941 had stolen it and moved it into France along with the great city of Nantes. Post-war the French were not about to give Nantes back and the campaign for Breton unification continues. Bevet Breizh! (Long Live Brittany).
If you are heading to France with the car this year then a visit to Nantes and Muscadet is warmly recommended.
Muscadet is very much back en vogue and still perhaps the best match for oysters. I feature an excellent biodynamic one here from Wines Direct who have been working with Joseph Landron for a number of years now. Landron’s ‘Atmospheres’ méthode traditionelle sparkling wine is also delicious with creamy tangy pear fruit flavours.
Other Muscadet to watch out for include Irish wine geese Marquis de Goulaine (JJ O’Driscolls), Domaine de la Foliette (MacCurtain Wine Cellar), and Domaine de la Chauvinière (reduced in the O’Briens French wine sale to €12).
Jo Landron’s was one of the first in the Loire to go organic and later biodynamic back in the 1990s. Now the region is a hotbed of natural and organic wines. Natural yeasts and minimal intervention with flinty fresh aromas plus lemon, citrus and apple — taut and zingy. Also consider his ‘Atmospheres’ fizz.
Owned by the Cazes family of Ch. Lynch Bages this is a delicious supple Minervois made primarily from Syrah plus some Grenache and Carignan. This is lush and intense with spice and blackberries and ripe fleshy dark fruits on the palate - capable of ageing. The baby brother ‘Estibals’ Minervois is also great value at €14.
Affordable tasty Bordeaux from the Médoc is difficult to find these days, so it’s about time I mentioned this old reliable. Pencil lead and cedar aromas mixed with blackberry and dark fruits — supple, fruity and creamy on the palate with chocolate notes and a touch of leaf and dried berries. A bargain.
From PJ Rigney’s Shed Distillery in County Leitrim, creator of Gunpowder Gin.
This is a limited edition and has spent a full seven years in Marsala casks from Sicily. Made from a mash bill of Irish Barley and Barra Oats and overseen by head distiller Brian Taft.
Honey, caramel and red fruit aromas, sweet on first sip with nuts and dried cherries and a prickle of spice with hazelnuts and dark fruits on the finish.
