A superb and serious Muscadet of real depth and character. Pale gold with greeny glints, the nose is zesty and mineral, with sea breeze freshness and a quiet, reserved complexity that rewards patience. On the palate it is pure, juicy and textural, denser and more contemplative than Michel’s entry-level cuvée, with a sustained mineral piquancy on the finish that lingers beautifully. This is Muscadet at its most compelling. Pair it with oysters, grilled langoustines, sole meunière or any simply prepared seafood.
Michel Delhommeau farms 25 hectares in the commune of Monnières, just south of Nantes, where the soils are predominantly gabbro and gneiss rather than the granite that dominates much of Muscadet. The Clos Armand is his finest single-vineyard cuvée, drawn from 70-year-old vines rooted entirely in gabbro at 50 metres altitude. Gabbro is formed when volcanic molten lava is trapped and slowly cools beneath the earth’s crust, and it is this igneous rock, chemically equivalent to basalt, that gives the wine its distinctive flesh, weight and mineral density.
Michel vinifies each soil type separately using wild yeast and limited sulphur at 45mg per litre total, which gives his wines better fruit definition than most Muscadet while preserving the sea breeze aromatics that drift in from the nearby Atlantic.
The domaine is certified organic under Ecocert, reflecting Michel’s commitment to farming in harmony with these exceptional ancient soils and their capacity to produce wines of genuine complexity and precision.
12% / 75cl
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