Vine Revival, 2016 Update
I have in fact revisited this increasingly renowned Muscadet project once already this year, when I tasted with Vincent Caillé at the Salon des Vins de Loire. I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to taste it again so soon, but spotting both Vincent and his partner in this project, Christelle Guibert (pictured below), at the RAW fair in London in May I knew they had to be pouring the Terre de Gneiss (as well as a number of Vincent’s other wines of course). And I certainly wasn’t going to refuse another opportunity to taste.
The recipe is already well described, so I will be brief in this update; Christelle owns 1 hectare of vines, which Vincent tends using solely organic methods. The fruit is picked by hand, pressed and vinified in a 16-hectolitre concrete egg. The 2014 vintage was inaugural, and is now largely sold out, although I do know that Christelle has opted to keep back 90 magnums and 172 bottles, for a later release. Apparently the magnums are popular with restaurants for sale by the glass (presumably with a decent preservation system such as Enomatic or Coravin).
Please log in to continue reading: