Description
This is a superb cuvée, made from 70yo vines planted in a soil of gabbro. A very attractive pale gold colour with greeny glints, this is denser and more reserved than Michel’s first cuvée. It is very pure and juicy with good texture on the palate and the sustained finish reveals a mineral piquancy.
Michel Delhommeau farms 25 ha in the commune of Monnières, just south of Nantes, where the soils are predominantly gabbro and gneiss, unlike much of Muscadet which is dominated by granite.
Gabbro is formed when volcanic molten lava is trapped and slowly cools down under the earth’s crust, whereas gneiss is formed by the metamorphosis of granite caused by an increase in temperature and/or pressure – for example when continental plates crash into each other and form mountain chains.
In order to express the nuances between each soil type, Michel vinifies them separately using wild yeast and limited amounts of sulphur (45mg/l total) which gives his wines better fruit definition than most Muscadet while keeping sea breeze aromatics from the nearby Atlantic.
12% / 75cl
