Muscadet Sèvre et Maine
Cool maritime
The Pays Nantais' core appellation: neutral, high-acid Melon de Bourgogne aged on its lees to a fine, briny, lemony dryness.
Overview
About Muscadet Sèvre et Maine
Muscadet Sèvre et Maine is the heart of the Pays Nantais, taking its name from the two small rivers that run through it. Melon de Bourgogne is the only grape, and the wine is generally light, dry and low in alcohol.
The traditional method is to leave the wine on its fine lees through the winter and bottle it straight from the tank, which is called sur lie. That adds a slight prickle, a creamy texture and a savoury note to the lemon and salt of the wine. It is one of the great oyster wines.
Muscadet Sèvre et Maine is marked on the map.
France
Shaded: Loire-Atlantique. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Cool maritime
Oceanic and mild, with moderate rainfall and a long, gentle ripening season. Melon de Bourgogne, an early-ripening, frost-resistant grape, suits the conditions.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Schist, gneiss and granite, with shallow, poor soils. Well-drained slopes above the river valleys give the best wines.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Muscadet Sèvre et Maine is a single appellation with one grape, and the labels that matter are 'sur lie' and the village cru.
Cru communal
Where a village name such as Clisson, Gorges or Le Pallet appears, the wine has had much longer on its lees and comes from that village's best soils.
Sur lie
Aged on its lees over the winter and bottled directly from them. Adds texture and a light savoury note.
AOC Muscadet Sèvre et Maine
Melon de Bourgogne only, from the area around the Sèvre and Maine rivers.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.