Old Vines, Black Granite, and a Little Bit of Magic
Muscadet has long been the quiet intellectual of French wine—crisp, mineral, a touch austere. But in the hands of Jérôme Bretaudeau, it starts to feel less like a quiet academic and more like an avant-garde composer. His 2022 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie ‘L’Envol’ is one of those rare wines that manages to honor the classic and still upend your expectations.
Based in the village of Gétigné, Bretaudeau has quietly built one of the most compelling estates in the region. Farming organically since 2012 and fully biodynamic since 2016, his 15 hectares are a patchwork of volcanic soils—gneiss, granite, and gabbro (aka "black granite")—each with its own voice. What sets him apart isn’t just the farming, though. It’s the experimental spirit. His cellar looks less like a traditional winery and more like a vinous mad scientist’s lab: stainless steel, amphorae, concrete eggs, barrels—all deployed with the purpose of learning what each vineyard, vine age, and soil type can uniquely express.
L’Envol is made from Melon de Bourgogne vines planted between the 1970s and 1990s, grown on gabbro-rich soils that lend the wine its trademark cut and mineral tension. Fermented with native yeasts and aged eight months on the fine lees, it’s bright, briny, and absolutely electric. But it’s not just a wine of angles and edges. There’s ripe citrus, a whiff of white flowers, and a kind of relaxed, salty elegance that feels deeply modern while remaining resolutely Muscadet.
This is not a wine built for loud praise or flashy tasting notes. It’s a wine for people who listen closely, who like their whites with nerve and nuance. It’s also a bottle that quietly disappears at the table.
If you’re looking for a reason to rediscover Muscadet—or to prove to someone that it can still surprise—this is your moment.
