Domaine de l'Ecu Tasting @ Solano Cellars Friday September 6th

 

 

In the hazy days of summer's last stretch, is there anything better than the high tone salinity and crunching minerality of Muscadet from the maritime climate of the Loire's western coast? Not in our book. And if we're ending the summer with an ode to one of our favorite thirst-quenchers of the season, who better to highlight than Domaine de l'Ecu, one of the region's undisputed pioneers, and may be the winemaker most responsible for putting the wines back on the map, with their early embrace of natural viticulture, terroir-specific bottling, and extended lees aging that defines how Muscadet is thought of today.

 

Guy Bossard, the legendary founding winemaker of Domaine de l'Ecu, set up nearly 40 years ago a series of non-negotiable "house rules" that still apply to all the wines at Domaine de L'Ecu: biodiversity in the vineyards, low yields, harvesting by hand, fermentation with indigenous yeast, no pumping or racking of the must (only gravity), and minimal use of sulfur. He did so because he believed passionately that the unique terroirs that exist within the Muscadet appellation inspired vinification and bottling according to soil type, and that Melon de Bourgogne (the Burgundian import that is the varietal powerhouse of the region) is as capable a variety as any of reflecting the nuances of those varied soils. Now under the direction of dynamo Fred Niger, the domaine has maintained its reputation as a top grower of terroir-transparent, age-worthy Muscadet, and has grown to include a lineup of varietal wines like Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Pineau d'Aunis, often aged in amphora, that aim to likewise showcase the diverse and expressive terroir in the region.

 

On Friday, we'll have our friend Eric Quilty from Merchants of Thirst behind the bar to pour through a lineup of Domaine de l'Ecu's most scintillating wines - from their classic and single vineyard Muscadets to their highly limited and dizzyingly delicious reds (with a little Chenin splashed in the middle!).