The Pays Nantais is the region surrounding the city of Nantes, on the Atlantic coast of Brittany, France. The region covers an area of about 90 kilometres from east to west, between neighbouring Anjou and the Atlantic coast. Most of the production produces light, fresh white wines. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Muscadet, where the melon">Melon de Bourgogne grape dominates the plantings.
Muscadet wines are, in turn, produced under several different appellations, including Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine. Melon de Bourgogne is not a particularly tasty grape variety, so without care in the Vineyard and careful Vinification, the wines are likely to be rather bland and Characterless. This is especially true in hot vintages, when the grapes tend to lose their Organoleptic complexity and their vital, characteristic Acidity. In order to glean as much flavour and character as possible from the grape must, many wines are left on the lees for weeks or even months.
Merlot noir is a grape variety that originated in France (Bordeaux). It produces a variety of grape specially used for wine making. It is rare to find this grape to eat on our tables. This variety of grape is characterized by small to medium sized bunches, and medium sized grapes. Merlot noir can be found in many vineyards: South West, Languedoc & Roussillon, Cognac, Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Armagnac, Burgundy, Jura, Champagne, Rhone Valley, Beaujolais, Provence & Corsica, Savoie & Bugey.
Liv-ex said the trade ‘is reporting strong sales’ of Burgundy 2020 wines following the first en primeur releases in recent weeks, despite higher prices. Decanter’s Charles Curtis MW rated Côte d’Or reds and whites highly in his Burgundy 2020 overview, published earlier this month. Liv-ex’s new Burgundy report also suggested that getting hold of some wines has become even more difficult. ‘The trade continues to report an insatiable global buying appetite that has led to reduced alloca ...
The Decanter team and our expert contributors are lucky enough to discover and taste some of the world’s finest and most intriguing wines from across the globe every year, many of which are notoriously difficult to find. To help our readers get their hands on our top-rated wines, we are launching a wine club – the Decanter Wine Club – to help bring some of the very best directly to your doorstep. As part of this exciting new initiative, which will initially be available to our ...
Many wine styles can seem perplexing at first: imagine the first bottle of Barolo if you only know Barossa Shiraz, or the first bottle of Jura Savagnin if you were brought up on California Chardonnay. With time, thought and repeated tasting, though, comes understanding. You learn each wine’s syntax and lexicon, its hints and inferences. You grasp the ways in which each style communicates. Its beauty dawns, then grows. Rosé wine sales grew 23% worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Its fuel has come fr ...
