Melon de Bourgogne

Melon de Bourgogne is the grape of Muscadet, at the mouth of the Loire, and its name records an origin it was expelled from. It came from Burgundy, where its round leaf earned it the melon name, and it was repeatedly banned there because it was seen as a threat to Pinot noir. It moved west and found the Atlantic.

The great cold winter of 1709 is the event that fixed it in place. It killed most of the vines around Nantes, and Melon was replanted because it tolerates cold better than what it replaced. It also ripens early, which matters on a coast where autumn arrives fast.

The wine is famously neutral, and the technique that makes it interesting is sur lie ageing: the wine stays on its spent yeast through the winter and is bottled directly off it, which adds texture, a slight spritz and a bready weight to a wine that would otherwise be almost empty. The result is bone dry, high in acid, faintly saline and one of the great matches for oysters. The best crus, such as Clisson and Gorges, age for a decade and taste nothing like cheap Muscadet.