ABOUT: The Domaine de L'Ecu Muscadet Granite 2020 is made by Fred Niger, who trained extensively with Guy Bossard (the “Pope of Muscadet”) before taking the reins in 2012. He’s been making crazy high quality biodynamically produced wine near Nantes ever since. This is serious benchmark wine made by a Muscadet enthusiast. Whole bunches of grapes are gently pressed and ageing on its lees; the wines are terrior-focused with each bottling being named after a variety of stone found in the vineyard. The “Granite” is made from three special southeast facing hectares of vines averaging fifty years old. Granite has tremendous ageing potential, if we were smart we’d stash a few cases out of sight and hopefully stumble upon them in ten years for a thrill. TASTE: The Granite is made from 100% Melon de Bourgogne and is a medium bodied, citrusy, briny, salty wine, like licking a surfboard. Everything is medium (alcohol, body, acid) and is very expressive, not so much fruity but more like taste on your tongue when you’re close to an ocean breeze. This works both as a delightful, easy going wine for the Tuesday night dinner table, or to taste slowly and think about after a few years of development. PAIR: Grilled summer squash with blue cheese, ranchero beans with fried eggs, radish peanut chutney, zucchini fritters, morel mushroom white sauce fettuccine, and roasted avocado guacamole.
