Éric Chevalier, “Le Clos de La Butte” 2021

100% Melon de Bourgogne, from the western end of the Loire, long dogged by its ocean (not so far, in an Atlantic sense) of cheap Melon cash-cropped to be sold in bulk the world over for acidified, nauseating accompaniment for oysters. Like any good thing, Muscadet has been a victim of its own success and perhaps the clarity of its story: one grape, the cold sea-churn that-a-way, local wine to go with local fare harvested just offshore. Think of Beaujolais Nouveau: Gamay->cellar->bottle. Such an easy concept and its beautiful simplicity prove easy to exploit, unfortunately. But this makes it all the better to finally find The Real Thing – the first time you taste a Beaujolais not carbonically macerated to oblivion or sulfured to sleep; and indeed the first time you taste organic Melon liberated via natural fermentation to its salty and surprisingly tropical apex, you will remember it. Éric Chevalier is a fourth-generation winemaker working south of the Loire in a small village within the broader Pays Nantais (tr.: country places around the city of Nantes), where he and his family organically cultivate ~25 hectares of fruit across a broader, polycultural farm. The vast majority of the vines is dedicated to the humble Melon de Bourgogne, a several-century-old transplant from its original home in eastern Bourgogne (ergo the name) that has, over the years, adapted to its maritime environment. This is a slightly aged (2021), superb example of Melon in southern Muscadet – flinty, salty, mineral with surprisingly floral elements trading with tropical fruit and the bracing acidity of its serpentine soil’s provenance will wash down the plate of fruits de mer sat in front of you.