Fat Sheep of Pedigree:
The Master's Stunning New Muscadet
From the Best Terroir in the Region
Marc Ollivier of Domaine Pépière is the grand master of Muscadet. Year in and year out he produces the wines of the vintage and has attracted a large and enthusiastic following of wine geeks, who form a cult to the once lowly Muscadet appellation.
When we found out that he was releasing a wine from the the Gras Mouton vineyard (one that he and many others consider Muscadet’s finest) we couldn't wait to taste.
What arrived just in time for the scorching heat of August is classic Pépière— full of sea breeze and stony minerality and crackling citrus infused acidity— and a monument to the 2008 vintage, which wasn’t easy on the region’s growers.
The wine’s bracing, sparklingly crisp minerality is a perfect antidote to the heat and it's nearly impossible to match both Pépière’s price-to-quality ratio and the sheer gulpability of his wines - a perfect combination for the care-free days of summer.
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More about the vintage: due to spring frosts, the crop size was 30%+ below average. But the grapes that remained were concentrated, ripe and slightly fleshier than the excellent 07 vintage. The 2008 Gras Mouton offers up a palate-saturating medley of apples, chalk, lime zest, white flowers and hints of honeyed nectarine. Both a vin de garde and a vin de soif, Gras Mouton has a place in your cellar and on your table or your roof deck as a house wine.
If actions truly do speak louder than words, it would seem that Pépière has been fascinated by and angling for a Gras Mouton bottling for some time. In 05 Pépière released his first "Cuvée Eden", which contained a portion of Gras Mouton fruit. However, once Pépière was able to acquire enough vines in Gras Mouton for its own bottling, he let the other plot go so that he could make the cuveé exclusively from Gras Mouton grapes.
For you terroir fanatics and fellow Pépière geeks, Gras Mouton offers up an intriguing contrast to the legendary Clos des Briords. While Briords originates on granite, Gras Mouton is situated on gneiss. The comparisons between the two bottles are fascinating. Very briefly, Gras Mouton delivers slightly richer textures and has more peach and nectarine notes.
The 2008 Gras Mouton represents an amazing debut from one of the regions most talented winemakers. We strongly encourage you to join us in acquiring bottles both for drinking and cellaring; the track record for aging with Pépière’s wines is compelling—an '88 Clos des Briords tasted last fall was brilliantly alive—and the price of the wine relative to the quality makes it an almost shameful steal.
Click below or call the store at (212) 980-9463 to secure your bottles.
Joe and Stephen
Wine Buyers
Crush Wine & Spirits
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