Chateau La Touche 2014
Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine
The Refreshing Loire White at the Perfect Price


 

  
This is the perfect wine to keep in your refrigerator: zippy acidity, low-priced, low-alcohol, and always refreshing when you want a cool glass of white.

 

  

The 2014 Chateau La Touche Muscadet has just arrived and Bob and I agree it is their greatest vintage to date. If you've enjoyed this wine in the past, you definitely want a case this year.

  

This is Muscadet at its best: cool, refreshing with a minerally finish as an added bonus. Maybe France's greatest white wine value.

  

In white wines acidity is what makes the difference between refreshing and crisp and just OK. It also magnifies the fruit. Acidity is a delicate thing to get just right and this Château La Touche 2014 shows us how it's done. The 2014 vintage really shows off a marriage of concentration and acidity that brings out the best in this wine. A perfect day-ending refresher at a no-holding-back price.

  

And, you can probably have two bottles of this Muscadet for the price of one bottle of that Chardonnay you've been drinking.

  

Believe me, I'm never one to choose quantity over quality, and that's the beautiful thing about Chateau La Touche Muscadet - it is a stunning, crisp mouthful of grapefruit, passion fruit, flowers, and minerals for a very low price.

  

Muscadet isn't going to set off rockets in your mouth with a barrage of exploding oak bombs and floral and spice detonations, but somehow when you've parted with your last mussel or the last oyster has slithered down your gullet, you'll feel mighty satisfied. The food will somehow just taste better because of this long, tall one, trust me. Any type of seafood will get our amicable little Muscadet going.

  

Chateau La Touche is very dry with wonderful zippy acidity and crispness. This Muscadet has a bit of nervousness to it. There is some minerality and its lovely flavors of agrumes (a mélange of citrus) will probably persuade you to prick another cork and liberate some more juice. It happens all the time at my house.

  

The Muscadet vineyards are at the western edge of the Loire Valley close to the Atlantic Ocean. Muscadet comes from the Melon de Bourgogne grape (often called Muscadet). It is a cousin of Gamay, which is used to make Beaujolais. Muscadet has nothing to do with Muscat or Muscadelle.

  

The best Muscadet, like this Chateau La Touche, comes from the area called Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine. There are four cantons (communes) that can put Sevre-et-Maine on their labels and this is always something to look for.

  

The best Muscadet also has "sur lie" on the label, as does the Chateau La Touche. This means that the wine has been kept on its lees (mostly dead yeast and skins) throughout the winter after the harvest, before bottling. The thinking is that wine allowed to mingle with its lees will pick up extra richness from the lees, but also by leaving the wine in the same fermentation tank with the lees, the carbon dioxide released during the fermentation will give the wine some nerviness and crispness. Sur lie Muscadet is not fined or filtered.

  

Do you want to know another great thing about Muscadet? It's low in alcohol. That means you can drink more of it, which is what usually happens with this Muscadet.

-Margot Hurley, Cynthia Hurley French Wines

 

TO ORDER: Simply reply to this email or call the store at 781-934-2033. The wine is not yet in the store (we don't have the room!), it will be ordered for you and we'll give you a call when it arrives in about a week. The minimum purchase is a 12-bottle case. We are happy to deliver your case within Duxbury free of charge.

-Richard Marble

 

THE DETAILS:

 

Chateau la Touche 2014

Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine (Loire, France)

 

$143.88 per 12-bottle case ($11.99)

 

 

This is the perfect everyday white. Keep a few bottles chilled and at the ready - you'll be glad.

 

(This low price reflects a 15% case discount)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Snug Harbor Wine | 459 Washington Street | Duxbury, MA | 781-934-2033