Domaine Luneau-Papin: Cru Communal Cuvées
The Luneau-Papin portfolio has long been an extensive one. When I started out tasting in Muscadet the late Guy Bossard would pour only three or four wines in any given vintage, and both Jo Landron and Marc Ollivier would pour perhaps only one or two more than this number, but the sheer breadth of Pierre Luneau-Papin’s portfolio would outdo them all. Sometimes he would pour close to a dozen different cuvées from bottle (if it wasn’t exactly a dozen, it sure felt like it), alongside unnamed brut de cuve samples the exact origin or eventual identity of which was not always clear. Not infrequently I would then be treated to a vertical of older vintages of Excelsior or Le L d’Or, in the case of the latter back to 1989 on several occasions, once going right back to the inaugural 1976 vintage.
Happy times!
These days the portfolio still feels extensive, but I also feel that under the tutelage of Pierre-Marie Luneau and Marie Chartier there is a little more focus to it. A better delineation of styles, an improved focus of what-fits-where, and not to mention much-improved presentation as well. It is also somewhat easier to carve up for discussion, as it now includes two cuvées from the Goulaine cru communal, which was ratified in 2019.
