Maps from Lonely Planet -- The Loire

This winegrape is grown in France near the Atlantic Ocean end of the Loire valley. (The nearest big city is Nantes). The French have long been aware that this wine is the best wine known to Man for seafood. Hugh Johnson in his "Modern Encyclopedia of Wine (1987)" states "... for seafood, there is the incomparable match of Muscadet". In "The Vineyards of France (1987)", Don Philpott says the Muscadet region produces about 5 million cases of this wine annually -- yet it's virtually unknown in America.

This winegrape was brought to America in 1939 by Georges de Latour and was established at Beaulieu Vineyards (BV) in California. BV labelled the wine from this grape as simply "Chablis", however they refered to the grape interchangably as both Melon de Bourgogne and Pinot Blanc. This usage is undoubtedly responsible for the subsequent mislabeling of the propagated grapes to other vineyards in America with the incorrect name of Pinot Blanc. The error was not discovered until 1980.

At this writing we know of but three examples of this wine from American producers (labelled as Melon de Bourgogne); Panther Creek, Eugene Wine Cellars and Elemental Cellars, all from Oregon state.

If you've not tried it before, we strongly encourage you to do so, especially with seafood. In a few years, with luck, you'll be able to order it from Perennial Vintners. In the interim, order online from one of the Oregon wineries (above), or drop by your favorite wine shop and get a bottle -- they will probably have only one or two labels. If the shop has none, send them to Sauvion, a high quality French Muscadet producer with good export availablity to the U.S.

References: MelonDeBourgogne.com