Domaine de l’Ecu, 2018 Update
Among the vignerons of the Loire Valley, few took a bigger hit in the frost of 2017 than Fréd Niger, the man behind the modern-day reshaping of Domaine de l’Ecu. The sub-zero temperatures of April 26th saw the year’s crop totally wiped out, or close to it. Just a few bunches survived; in picking these Fréd brought in a meagre 3 hl/ha, giving him barely enough juice to fill a few amphorae. And this disaster came on top of a similarly destructive frost early in the 2016 vintage.
Such low yields in this hand-to-mouth region make running a domaine very difficult, unsustainable even, especially when they occur in back-to-back vintages. Fréd has therefore relied on friends, both those close at hand and a number who are much further afield, for support at this time. Not just helpful words, or platitudes against the evil side of Dame Nature, but real support. In other words donations of fruit, for vinification as Fréd saw fit. As a consequence the portfolio at Domaine de l’Ecu sees some curious new additions this year. Alongside the more familiar cuvées, such as Mephisto and Taurus, there are new and presumably temporary additions to the portfolio featuring fruit from as far afield as the Rhône Valley and Italy.
The Wines
There was a time when Domaine de l’Ecu was top tier for its terroir-defined examples of Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, three cuvées named Gneiss, Orthogneiss and Granite. These days Fréd’s focus is clearly on his many other wines, identifiable by their distinctive, avant-garde labels and colour-matched wax capsules. Up until this tasting my most recent encounter with the three Muscadet Sèvre et Maine cuvées had been with the 2014 vintage, and this includes any that I encountered in the blind tasting of lees-aged Muscadets which was published in Decanter magazine during 2017. This perhaps reflects the long time, 18 months or more, that Fréd (pictured above, with his partner Claire Ouzoulias) leaves these wines on the lees. On this occasion he had just one 2015 to pour, the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Granite; sadly this sample seemed a little tired, despite its youth.
