Don't Forget About Guy Bossard

With his cute bearded and smiling face, his annual oyster and old wine party, and his many cuvées, one even more delicious than the next, it's easy to be exclusive in Muscadet with Marc Ollivier and Domaine de la Pépière.

But there are other skilled producers with vines planted in the great Muscadet terroirs, like Jo Landron of Domaine de la Louvetrie, Pierre Luneau-Papin, Michel Brégeon, and Guy Bossard, to name those whose wines I know a little bit. I've had utterly brilliant wines from each of these producers - I have no one favorite (although the 2000 Brégeon Gorgeois was pretty awesome). All of these producers make reasonably priced and cellar-worthy wines that are pretty easy to find. Well, all except for Guy Bossard (click here for the Wine Doctor's profile). His wines are reasonably priced and most assuredly cellar-worthy, but I don't see them very often. And when I do, it's likely to be only one of his three top cuvées. Recently I drank one of his wines and it reminded me of why well made Muscadet is really the most under-valued white wine in the world.

2007 Guy Bossard Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine Expression d'Orthogneiss, $22, Kysela Imports. Bossard's top wines always need a lot of time to open up. When drinking them young it's not a bad idea to decant them several hours before hand. I didn't do that this time, and I was surprised at the immediately beautiful and expressive nose. Absolutely clean and pure, very fresh, and vibrant with lemon, herbs like anise and mint, and stones. The palate is not as expressive, still pretty tough and rocky, and showing wafts of yeasty cellar that come and go. If there is fruit in there, or flowers or herbs, they're buried under the rock. I don't see why this wine shouldn't evolve into the complete package, but I don't have enough experience with it in other vintages to feel confident in my predictions. There is lots of energy here though, and again, the nose is just beautiful.

If you're curious about the wines, get 'em while you can, as Jim Budd reported that Bossard put his Domaine up for sale.