French Wine Tasting
Featuring Thomas Calder Selections
Delight in the Exquisite Whites of the Loire Valley and Refined Reds of Burgundy & Beaujolais.
Don't miss this unique chance to sample several Muscadets from neighboring vineyards side by side!
Friday, January 24th
Le Petit Bijou
Call 256-964-7980 to Reserve
Muscadet Sèvre et Maine (Dubbed the appellation of the future!)
Domaine Luneau Papin is the leading producer of single-vineyard, terroir-driven, long-ageing Muscadet. Their bottles have graced the wine lists of the world’s best restaurants vintage after vintage (Paul Bocuse anyone?). Pierre-Marie Luneau is the 9th generation in his family to grow that mystical Nantais grape: Melon de Bourgogne. In 2008 he was joined by his wife Marie Chartier. Together they farm 35 hectares in the heart of Muscadet Sèvre et Maine.
French Wine Tasting
Featuring Thomas Calder Selections
Le Petit Bijou
Friday, January 24th
4pm - 6pm, $20
With Special Guest, Allaina Nielson of International Wines
256-964-7980 to Reserve
2022 Domaine Luneau-Papin Muscadet Sevre & Maine Sur Lie `le Verger`, Muscadet Sevre Et Maine, Loire Valley, France $25.99
From 25 year old vines planted on schist soils, this gentle and elegant Muscadet dances with fresh, vibrant acidity and biscuity intensity from its six months maturation on its lees. Crystal-pure, long and mineral, this is a fantastic example of the sea-salty Muscadet region at a very fair price!
Biodynamic-certified Domaine Luneau Papin is one of the top producers in the Muscadet region – their wines have an extra level of intensity, purity and minerality to any other Muscadets I have tried. Husband and wife team Pierre-Marie and Marie Luneau Papin pay incredible attention to detail in the vineyard to produce grapes which perfectly express their different hillside terroirs overlooking the Goulaine wetlands and Atlantic Ocean beyond.
2022 Dom Luneau-Papin Muscadet Sevre & Maine Sur Lie `Vera Cruz`, Muscadet Sevre Et Maine, Loire Valley, France $36.99
Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin Cuvée Vera Cruz is an exquisite wine that epitomizes the finesse and quality associated with the Loire Valley region in France. This wine is crafted with utmost care from the Melon de Bourgogne grape, grown in the prestigious Muscadet-Sèvre et Maine appellation. The Cuvée Vera Cruz displays a pale yellow hue and expresses a beautiful bouquet of fresh citrus fruits, subtle floral notes, and a hint of salinity. On the palate, it offers a harmonious combination of zesty acidity, minerality, and delicate fruit flavors, culminating in a refreshingly crisp and elegant finish. This is a must-try wine for those seeking a refined and terroir-driven experience.
Bedrock of micaschist and gneiss with two micas. Plot officially registered under the name Vera Cruz. According a history, a sailor stranded in our lands gave the name of Vera Cruz to this place.
Grapes are pressed in a pneumatic press, strength and length of pressing is adapted to each vintage. Spontaneous fermentation using only natural yeasts. Fermentation and maturation on lees in underground glass lined vats + amphorae (Italian terracotta), without racking until bottling during summer
2022 Domaine Luneau-Papin De L`Or, Muscadet Sevre Et Maine, Loire Valley, France $36.99
This plot is one of the historical treasures of the Luneau family. The parcel is called La Claretière. It rises up between two villages and has a river running through it. Officially part of the village of the recently minted cru village of Vallet, the vineyard lies at the top of a hillside forming a 500 meter wide seam of granite that descends gently to the gneiss of the village of Le Landreau.
It was a wonderful treat to see this wine get the airtime it deserves in the recently released tome by Jon Bonné, 'The New French Wine': "But more than anything, Marie Chartier-Luneau is one of the best evangelists of the potential of Muscadet to evolve and grow into great wine—as good as the finest Chablis. This is why, when she starts talking about their cellarful of back vintages of L d'Or, she pauses: "Just wait. Someday it'll be priced like Raveneau." On that note, Bonné describes the wine as "more tense and edgy with white sesame, white miso, a pretty fragrant melon aspect, plus a big dense mineral knot that shines with fifteen years or more of aging."
Jim Budd of Decanter speaking on the 2021 vintage: "Showing opulent aromas from a variety of exotic fruits, this is richly textured, with good balancing acidity. A very precise, crisp, crystalline wine with a long finish. It is still a little tight and ideally needs more time in bottle. In common with many of the Luneau-Papin wines this flagship wine has great potential to age. The domaine’s reputation was made by Pierre and Monique Luneau, who have now retired, with their son Pierre-Marie and his wife Marie taking over. They have taken this excellent domaine to a new level – firstly becoming organic and more recently biodynamic." -96 points
MW Richard Hemming on the 2020 vintage: "Tasting the 2020 L d'Or is as refreshing as standing at the end of a pier and feeling the cold Atlantic washing your face. Muscadet is a marine wine, and this cuvée delivers a great gust of sea-breeze salinity. The fruit is tart but not unripe: bright yellow lemon, crisp green apple. After the first wave of flavour, there is a generous shake of dried herbs alongside persistent citrus fruit. It's utterly delicious. I scored it 17+, indicating that the wine is likely to improve over its considerable drinking window, which I conservatively estimated at ten years."
2021 Domaine Luneau-Papin Gula-Ana Goulaine Cuvee, Muscadet Sevre Et Maine, Loire Valley, France $48.99
The grapes are 50-year-old vines from a unique vineyard with peridotite and serpentinite as the soil. The grapes are harvested by hand and aged on lees for 22 months in underground concrete tanks lined with glass tiles. Unusually for a Muscadet, malolactic fermentation takes place.
Very complex with ripe orange aromas and a breathtakingly beautiful palate. Ripe papaya, licorice-scented mandarin, poached quince with star anise, fennel bulb, caraway seed and roasted nigella. The kaleidoscopic structure of this wine is astonishing. The incredible density, energy and tension, and fresh flavors resonate and fly around the palate like an otherworldly orchestra. An exceptional taste. By Tamlyn Kalin, JANCIS ROBINSON, March 2023
2023 Gregoire Hoppenot Fleurie Origines, Beaujolais, France $21.99
Stunningly rustic and organic Gamay done the right way. Indulge in the bramble and texture; fall in love with the generous fruit that seems almost judicious on the palate with a remarkably lively finish. Roast chicken or a pan-fried veal cutlet with some green beans could be just perfect.
Gregoire Hoppenot worked as a negociant in Beaujolais for 15 years, refining his palate as part of his job. As a winemaker, he uses this skill to taste along the way and guide his wines through their evolution as each vintage and bottling dictates. Working with 9 hectares, he sells some fruit and keeps his favorite for his own wines. The Origines bottling is made from 2 old-vine plots of Gamay and vinified with partial carbonic maceration, giving a pretty raspberry, coca cola note but with lingering complexity and buzzy tannins. It is a delicious expression of Cru Beaujolais from an exciting new producer.
2022 Isabelle & Denis Pommier Bourgogne Pinot Noir "Grain De Survie", Burgundy, France $34.99
Produced on a steep hillside made of flint clay in the town of Champvallon, near Joigny, this Pinot Noir is a wine with some tannins and good notes of red fruits.
The estate of Isabelle and Denis Pommier was founded in 1990 when the Pommiers, a young couple at the time, decided to take over two hecrates of their family’s land to produce their own wines. It took them a few years to get it down right, and their first bottled release was in 1994. The estate now spans 16 hectares of vineyards with appellations ranging from Petit Chablis all the way up to thier three Chablis premiers crus of Fourchaume, Cote de Lechet and Troesmes (a sub-parcel in Beauroy).
The winery and vineyards are located in and around the village of Poinchy, which is just outside of Chablis itself. The wines from this area tend to be ever so slightly more generous on the palate in terms of power and amplitude, but with a clear and distinct line of briny minerality and acidity that unmistakably scream “Chablis”! The Pommiers also make a small amount of an energetic Bourgogne Rouge from vineyards just outside of Chablis near Chitry. The wine is made from de-stemmed fruit and raised in mostly neutral wood. As Pinot from the Yonne should be, it is delicate and light in color, but with beautiful fruit and a floral/blood orange quality that is quite compelling. Regardless of the wine, there is pleasure and value up and down the Pommier hierarchy.
