I'm a consumer, not a wine expert, but it seems to me that muscadet and vouvray are very similar, and I enjoy both.
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Thank You @Eric Asimov for this review. I am very glad you enjoyed our Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu. Thank you for writing this article, it will help all the appellation to promote our wines the US.
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Muscadet has become my favorite white wine. I am beginning to learn the characteristics that engage my taste sensations as well as what I would call flavor. I recommend trying this wine.
Tasting Guy Bossard's Domaine de l’Ecu Expression de Gneiss with his Expression de Granite is an entertaining way to demonstrate to doubters that terroir is real.
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I keep on trying to like this wine but every bottle I try seems overwhelmingly grapefruity. It bums me the way an oak bomb bothers a natural wine aficionado. Is it me?
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Unfortunately, your tasting notes do not encompass bottlings of Muscadet that seriously buck the tidal wave of vin de carafe flowing from the region; nor address the virtues of giving the best Muscadet time to develop in cellar.
The best wines - Clos des Briords and Le L d’Or to name just two examples - in magnum and at 10 to 15 years from the vintage, can be a whole lot more than clean, crisp, ‘mineral’ accompaniment to shellfish. But few know, because few ever bother to try.
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@chambolle
Lighten up a bit! Eric mentions that these are early release reviews. I am drinking 2005 Briords right now and it is wonderful, however the Huchet 2017 recommended in this article is delicious and $9.99 in my local store. How many great wines sell for $9.99 in this day and age? This is NOT vin de carafe...
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I too enjoy Muscadet on occasion. It’s very versatile, often with clean saline notes. Also I have to second your book recommendation, “Wine Grapes.” It’s an amazingly thorough reference to over 1300 distinct grape varieties. I’ve had it only a few months but have reached for it countless times.
I would like to "feel the greater complexity... of the wines from granite and gabbro, a black, particularly hard form of granite." Which wines are these? It doesn't specify in the article.
I do enjoy a nice Muscadet on a warm autumn evening.
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@PeppaD
Domaine de L'Écu, cuvée Granite is a great example.
Santé!
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I love Muscadet. And the more Muscadetious the better.
I got the idea from Pete Wells.
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Interesting to invite somms from Le B and Le Coucou to this tasting, as I don't imagine you'd find a $14 retail bottle of wine on either (fine) restaurant's wine lists.
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In the early-mid 80’s our waiter at The Culinary Institute of America recommended Muscadet and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. Tomorrow I will swirl,swallow and take an immediate second sip~~thanks for the tip.
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That $14 bottle would likely sell for $38 to $42 in a restaurant
Great article, Eric. I agree that Muscadet is a pleasure to drink, and a versatile one.
Can you explain further what you mean by resonance? It sounds like a combination of mouthfeel and finish, but it’s not a term I have encountered in wine studies (Wset, primarily).
Cheers!
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@ Winthrop Boston
Yes, I find too that the reviews of wine would have been much more understandable, if they were not written in an elegiac and quasi-poetic language.
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@Winthrop
Resonance: the quality in a sound of being deep, full, and reverberating.
Now imagine resonance as taste and mouthfeel, rather than sound. The taste equivalent of listening to a well-crafted stringed instrument being expertly played. There is depth, texture, harmoniousness- beauty.
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@Tuvw Xyz
I didn't find anything particularly poetic in Eric's writing, let alone mournful. I did note to myself what skill he possesses in describing the taste of something so nuanced as a good Muscadet. Have you ever actually tried to describe what something tastes like? In writing? I have. It is a uniquely challenging form of communication to transpose taste, be it flavor or texture, into written words. I find Mr Asimov to be among the best I have read. His writing is clear and he helps you understand the complexities and subtle distinctions in a way that is neither intellectually cumbersome nor oversimplified.
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