Jo Landron, 2015 Update
While some Muscadet vignerons seem to be shifting their focus to new wines from unusual varieties with funky labels and wax capsules, others such as Jo Landron (pictured) just keep on doing what they do best, which as it happens is turning out some of the most vibrant, textured, punchy examples of Muscadet that exist. Although quality varies from vintage to vintage (only naturally so, this is true of all domaines, even the greatest) and there is the almost obligatory wood-fermented cuvée (but even Marc Ollivier and his gang, with their Clos Cormerais cuvée, are guilty of this) to act as the perennial fly in the ointment, quality across the board here is simply splendid.
Indeed, every time I have come to taste with Jo I find a number of high quality wines, and occasionally one that is truly wonderful. Often the latter wine turns out to be the latest incarnation of the Fief du Breil, and this most recent tasting occasion was no exception to this rule.
The Wines
I tasted a couple of wines from the 2014 vintage, namely the entry-level sur lie Muscadet and the Amphibolite cuvée, but I have already published these notes in my 2014 Muscadet report, so I don’t include them here. Instead I kick off with the 2013 vintage, starting with the cuvée from the Clos de la Carizière, a vineyard which came into the Landron fold in 1998. This wine is easily overlooked, yet it is often delightful, showing some appealing lightly desiccated fruit character as here. It is often on a par with Jo’s other wines, including Les Houx, a single-vineyard cuvée. The 2013 Les Houx has seen out fourteen months on the lees, and shows a fresh saline minerality laid over a very fine preserved-fruit concentration.
