Château Guipière, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine “La Tour Vieilles Vignes”

Students of classic French wine, gather ’round for an invite-only master class on Muscadet, a magical white that exists, possibly all alone, as France’s greatest pound-for-pound bargain. Where else but here can you experience a $22 white wine with tremendous levels of jolting minerality, ample texture, and sweeping refreshment? Sancerre? Not anymore. Bordeaux or Rhône? Nope. Burgundy? Surely you jest. Honorable mentions should certainly go to Jura and Savoie, but aside from that, it’s Muscadet by a mile, and it’s been Muscadet for years.With this exclusive direct import, I aim to simultaneously please devoted Loire drinkers and indoctrinate those who wish to expand their thirst-quenching spectrum. The grape is Melon de Bourgogne, and although it reigned supreme in Burgundy centuries ago, today, it holds hands with the Atlantic Ocean in the westernmost region of the Loire Valley. Here, it absorbs the salty tang and mica-schist soils to create a wine of absurd singularity, and with the e