Pierre Henri Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine Saint-Fiacre 2022
(Loire, France)

About the Winery:
Pierre-Henri Gadais is fifth-generation Muscadet-ian, grandson of trailblazer Michel Gadais, who cultivated the special terroir of Saint-Fiacre after WWII. Saint-Fiacre is an “island” of weathered granite and schist-clay soils sitting at the wishbone of the Sèvre and Maine rivers, where temperatures are more moderate than in the frost-plagued areas further downriver — allowing the Gadais family to farm old vines, most dating to the 1950s and some back to the 1920s.

About This Wine:
This cuvée is a blend of three vineyards: 45% Croix de Pierre (north-facing, micaschist soil, bringing bright natural acidity), 30% Les Encloses (a monopole farmed by Pierre-Henri's family since his great-grandfather first worked it in the 1940s-50s, right on the bank of the Sèvre River on gneiss bedrock that gives complexity and aging potential — Pierre-Henri's favorite site), and 25% Les Pétières (south-facing, also on gneiss, with 18-year-old vines contributing fruitiness and roundness). The 2022 growing season swung between frost and drought, punctuated by well-timed rain, yielding some of the finest Melon de Bourgogne fruit Pierre-Henri has seen; through an unusually hot summer he protected the vines by plowing between rows to drive roots deeper for water and by spraying a natural clay mixture on the vines to shield them from heat stress. The result is aromatic, fruity, dense and refined, with fragrant acacia-blossom notes, citrus and stone fruit (yuzu and nectarine), brilliant acidity and great length — perfectly dry and light in alcohol.