2019 Domaine Michel Brégeon Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 750 ml

From Napa to Nice, there’s one thing every oyster bar and oceanfront seafood enclave has in common: Muscadet Sèvre et Main. The Loire Valley’s signature white cornered the market on perfect pairings for straight-from-the-sea delicacies decades ago, and no bottle competes with Domaine Michel Brégeon.

A Loire Valley standard-bearer for 50 years, we’re overjoyed to share this must-have French white today. It’s taken us a year, two trips to Paris, and 34 emails to land this allocation, but we’ve finally secured 44 cases from this illustrious producer to share with Wine Access members. 

Bursting with the French trifecta of mineral briskness, bright acidity, and creamy texture, Brégeon’s 2019 packs $50+ value into a bottle that’s half the standard cost of blue-chip refreshment. Classically structured and full of refreshing minerality, this beautiful Muscadet is a must-have, no matter what’s on the menu. 

Today, the glistening white is a beacon of freshness that transports us with ease back to the cobblestone streets of Paris, and the hole in the wall enclave where we fell for this shimmering, citrus-laden white. Ducking under a low awning of Clamato to escape the sun, we (in true French fashion) skipped the water and immediately asked for two dozen oysters and their best recommendation for a crisp white to quench our thirst. 

Cooling relief came in the form of the mouth-watering, green apple- and lemon-laden Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, a creamy, mineral-driven white from the cool stretches of the Loire Valley. You'll have to excuse our French because we just had one word: "Magnifique."

It’s no surprise, considering the respect the name Michel Brégeon commands in the Loire Valley and France at large. For a half-century, this legendary vigneron’s interpretation of the cool, Loire Valley climate remains the benchmark: 65-year-old vines tended by hand and grown atop ancient igneous rock provide the wine with bracing acidity, which Brégeon mellows into perfect, creamy refreshment by aging the wine “sur lie,” or atop the yeast cells used in fermentation. 

The result is an irresistible wine that marries an ultra-creamy mouthfeel with brisk, mineral- and citrus-tinged freshness in a combination that’s made Brégeon a legend at temples of cuisine like the Michelin-starred Farmhouse Inn, the Marshall Store, and Chez Panisse.