Melon de Bourgogne

Back in the 1980s & 90s I lived in Kent, only 40 minutes from the Channel ports and, later, what we used to call the 'Chunnel'. Happily that moniker has fallen from the vernacular but it still provides a very convenient way of getting to France and beyond. Even post-Brexit.

In those heady days I was a regular participant in the then fashionable 'booze-cruises', returning from either Calais or Boulogne with the back of my Volvo 940 estate loaded with, er, booze.

I always liked the idea of value for money, however, in what I now think was a misguided attempt to maximise the benefits I usually shopped at the lower end of the market. I often bought Muscadet for about ten francs a bottle. Later that became about 1 euro per bottle (2002, I think) which at Today's exchange rate would be around 83p.

That Muscadet was quite sharp and not always pleasing to my friends, but it was cheap!  Hoping for somethings better we have:

Week M (2022) Champteloup Muscadet Sevre et Maine 2020. Waitrose £9.99

Muscadet comes from the far western end of the Loire valley where the river reaches its destination in the Atlantic ocean. It is a classic match for seafood, especially shellfish, and also good as an aperitif as it is very dry, has a hint of salinity and steely apple and melon fruit flavours.

The grape itself is Melon de Bourgogne and it has that name because it first grew in Burgundy, however, it was pushed out of its home by Chardonnay and its lesser cousin, Aligote. Also by decree, in the 18th century, as it was banished by the wine police as being inferior to its usurpers. Early in that century many of the vines around the western end of the Loire were destroyed by a particularly harsh winter and so Melon de Bourgogne found a new welcome and a new home.

This bottle has not disappointed. It is a very dry white wine with the characteristics promised above and it not anything like the harsh, but cheap, plonk I invested in as a bargain hunter.

It could be that the improvement is, in part, due to this wine being 'Sur Lie', which means that after fermentation has finished the wine is allowed to rest on the dead cells of the yeast responsible for converting the fruit sugars into alcohol. These dead cells are known in English as the 'lees' and they are sometimes stirred occasionally as the wine rests to assist with the development of a softer texture in the wine.

The improvement may also be a consequence of this not being a 1 euro wine. 1 eur in 2002 is now worth about 1.4 euro, so even adding the UK's punitive alcohol duty and VAT (tax on a tax) it must cost at least the equivalent of £5 in France. Maybe it is that Muscadet is now improved by a general upgrade in the region's wines, but whatever it is, I liked this one.

Buy again? Yes.