Domaine des Herbauges, Muscadet Sur Lie Côtes de Grandlieu, La Roche Blanche 2025
Domaine des Herbauges, Muscadet Sur Lie Côtes de Grandlieu, La Roche Blanche 2025 is a dry, light-bodied white from Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet, France), in the crisp, dry whites style. Acidity is very high; oak influence is none. Good with oysters, shellfish, white fish, salad.
| Wine | Sweet | Body | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muscadet Coteaux de La Loire Sur Lie 'Escapades' 2021 Chateau de l’Aujardiere · Loire | £13.95 | |||
| Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie Les Gras Moutons 2023 Domaine de la Pepiere · Loire | £13.60 | |||
| Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie, Domaine de la Chauvinière 2025 Jéremie Huchet · Loire | £13.50 | |||
| Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie, Tradition, Domaine Girard 2025 Domaine Girard · Loire | £13.20 |
Muscadet gets a bad rap — dismissed as cheap bistro plonk — but the Côtes de Grandlieu is one of the Loire's most interesting sub-appellations, and Domaine des Herbauges is one of its finest advocates. Their La Roche Blanche spends a full year on its lees, which gives the wine a creamy, almost saline weight that sets it apart from the thin, throwaway versions that give the appellation its unfortunate reputation. This is Melon de Bourgogne at its most convincing: taut, mineral, and unmistakably coastal in character. The 2025 vintage in the Loire was warm but not without freshness, and this wine carries that balance well — there's plenty of citrus bite and oyster-shell salinity, but the lees work rounds it out rather than letting it become austere.