Muscadet, Chateau de la Ragotière

“Textbook lime, flint and sea salt and citrus peel flavors here, with a crisp, cracking finish.” –Wine Spectator. Bright and fresh, this combines juicy, concentrated tangerine and green apple ripeness with surprisingly snappy acidity for the vintage, giving this real vibrancy and raciness. A strongly saline undertone brings shellfish to mind; the wine’s richness is suited to soft-shell crab or sautéed prawns rather than oysters.” -Wine and Spirits. This is how the wine magazines try to describe the 2003 vintage of Chateau de la Ragotière, Estate Bottled Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie. Even beyond the above glowing language of taste, there is a lot to explain in that seemingly complicated name. U.S. consumers are increasingly used to buying wines with made up names, and ill-defined place of origin, wines with no history but lots of marketing. Chateau de la Ragotière is the extreme other end of the “branding” spectrum, a wine from a single winery, from estate grown grapes, whose region of origin and method of production are patterned by generations of local experience and codified into law.

Muscadet is a wine region. The use of the name “Muscadet” on a wine label is governed by the French system of “Appellation Contrôlée”. In brief, that assures that the wine is made from certain types of grapes grown within specific boundaries and with certain regulations as to volume and methods of production. The Muscadet region lies along the Loire River very near where it empties into the Atlantic, beyond the city of Nantes. This is a very northerly place to grow grapes (about as far north as southern Washington State), but the weather is tempered by proximity to the ocean. The only grape allowed in appellation contrôlée “Muscadet” is Melon de Bourgogne, said to be a relative of Chardonnay from the region of Burgundy.

The additional phrase “Sèvre et Maine” refers to a sub-section of Muscadet, an area of gravelly rolling hills around the two rivers which join each other and then empty into the Loire southeast of Nantes. Although there are other notable sub-sections, “Muscadet des Coteaux de la Loire” and “Muscadet Côtes de Grand Lieu”, “Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine” is the premium designation most abundant and most commonly shipped to the U.S.

We now hear of occasional white wines from California being bottled “Sur Lie”, but the technique is traditional with the best wines of Muscadet. These wines are bottled directly from the fermentation vats or barrels having been left in contact with their sediment over the winter (most whites are “racked”, leaving grape solids and yeast behind). The process of aging the wine a bit in this fashion adds a lively component which might overwhelm the flavors of other whites, but it seems just the thing to provide body and character to fine Muscadet. When the wines are bottled, usually in the spring, they retain just a bit of the carbon dioxide that natural fermentation always produces. This is such a light touch that in most cases it is perceived as a crisp finish rather than actual bubbles, as we would we find in carbonated beverages.

So…., “Chateau de la Ragotière, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie” is a dry white wine made from Melon de Bourgogne grapes grown in the Sèvre et Maine section of the Muscadet region near France’s Atlantic coast. It is aged on its own sediment and bottled directly from the containers in which it was aged. Furthermore, it is designated “Mis en Bouteille au Chateau” meaning “estate bottled”. To add these words to a wine’s label a producer must use only fruit from his own vineyards.

Chateau de la Ragotière is a property established in the fourteenth century and purchased in 1979 by the Couillaud brothers, Bernard, François, and Michel. The family consistently applies traditional techniques and makes among the finest wines of the region. The vines for the estate’s primary bottling average over 25 years of age and certain bottlings are designated “Vieilles Vignes”, literally “Old Vines” (this phrase is curiously unregulated, in English or in French, the world over).

The vintage 2003, currently available in our area, is notable as perhaps the warmest in history. Chateau de la Ragotière 2003 has richer deeper texture than customary for wines of Muscadet. It is a viscous full-bodied version compared to the norm. A fine wine to be enjoyed in its youth as an aperitif or with just about any seafood.

Tangerine? I am not too sure about that. Try it for yourself for about $11.

06/05

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