Domaine Luneau-Papin, 2023 Update
Tasting with Pierre-Marie and Marie Luneau at the 2023 Salon des Vins de Loire (the first edition since 2020, it having been cancelled during the intervening pandemic years), the latter took to reminiscing about how the salon has changed over the years.
“You remember how it used to be for us ten or fifteen years ago? Pierre-Marie’s father would be on the stand, pouring everything he had, not just the most recent vintages. He would pour vintage after vintage of Excelsior and L d’Or. The 1995 L d’Or. And the 1989. And sometimes the 1976”.
Indeed, I remember it well. I learned a lot about Muscadet during my first few years at the annual Salon des Vins de Loire, in the process overturning some of the commonly repeated fallacies about this region and its wines, regularly regurgitated untruths which could be traced back to the 1970s, concerning Muscadet’s inherent quality, interest or ageworthiness.
The 1989 and 1976 vintages of L d’Or, poured by Pierre Luneau-Papin (and family), not to mention many other wines I encountered at the Salon des Vins de Loire, allowed me to form a different, much more positive view of these wines.
Times have changed though. Pierre Luneau-Papin no longer shows his face at this salon, leaving his son Pierre-Marie and daughter-in-law Marie to do the pouring and the pressing of the flesh (or fist-bumping if you are still in a Covid frame of mind). And while they might pour one or two more mature vintages, these days I don’t expect to find myself tasting 25-year-old L d’Or.
Of course this is not all that has changed.
Please log in to continue reading: