2012 Domaine de la Pépière Clisson Muscadet

We drank this 2012 Muscadet when we had our friends over for a dinner of oysters and salad. Sometimes, the simplest meals are the best to showcase a wine, with the proper pairing. One cannot go wrong with oysters from Matunuck Oyster Bar in South Kingston, Rhode Island. When we went to pick up the oysters, not only was the shucker who gave us the oysters really nice, the customers at the bar were also very nice and friendly. Our usual go to wine with oysters is a sparkling wine/champagne, but we were all very surprised when this Clisson Muscadet from Domaine de la Pépière with its acidity was a good foil for the toothsome oysters.
A very timely article written by Jon Bonne, called France’s Most Underrated White Wine Steps Out, appeared in Punch on February 10, 2016. This article was all about the under appreciated wine from Nantes, located in the western Loire called Muscadet. I have to confess, I always thought (with no proof whatsoever) that Muscadets were cloyingly sweet wines. Then comes this Clisson Muscadet to debunk all of my preconceived notions. Clisson is one of the three fully approved crus communaux comprised of parts of seven different communes whose soil type is classified as coarse with two-mica granite. There are rules that govern how the wine is made, especially when it comes to sur lie aging. Marc Ollivier is the vigneron at Domaine de la Pépière and suffice it to say, he has made me see the light when it comes to Muscadet.