Domaine du Haut Bourg, 2025 Update
The third and final instalment (well, final for this week, anyway) in this series of Muscadet reports sees me heading south, leaving behind the more renowned Muscadet Sèvre et Maine region to arrive in the less commonly encountered Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu.
This is a region which deserves exploration, as there are a number of domaines here which have developed an enviable reputation for the quality of their wines. One such leading name is Domaine du Haut Bourg, run by the Choblet brothers, Nicolas and Hervé. They turn out not only a strong portfolio of wines in the classic sur lie style, including a number of single-vineyard cuvées, but they also produce two serious lees-aged cuvées. These are Signature, which typically spends five or six years on the lees, and Origine, which in some vintages will pass as much as a decade on the lees before it sees the inside of a bottle. Both are frequently delicious. And both ensure I return here in most years, in order to check out the latest releases.
On this occasion I stopped off to taste with Nicolas and Hervé in early 2025, to hear about the 2024 vintage, and to taste the current releases, which include 2015 Origine and 2018 Signature, both bottled during the past twelve months.
