£14, Tanners
Muscadet growers have been having a tough time of it in the last few years, with devastating frosts this year and last making hard economic times even harder, but the wines, counterintuitively, have never been better. A generation of growers, going all out for quality, is demonstrating that good Muscadet trades the showiness of more popular wines for subtle complexity. And the best wines – witness this granite-grown 2010 – develop with age. It’s still mouthwateringly fresh and dry, but honey and almond-nougat now fill out the lemon, apple and salty intensity. Matching seafood is Muscadet’s first calling, but Jérémie Huchet’s 2010 Granit also has the depth to partner chicken with tarragon mayonnaise, vitello tonnato and creamy cheeses such as chaource. If you want to dip a toe in the Muscadet waters with a younger vintage, Tanners has plenty to offer.
Château-Thébaud Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Granit 2010, Loire, France
£14, Tanners, tanners-wines.co.uk