Muscadet/ Melon de Bourgogne

Muscadet is the common name for the white grape known as Melon de Bourgogne, which grows in France’s Pays Nantais wine region, where the Loire River reaches the sea. It makes dry, citrusy and refreshing wines that pair beautifully with the region’s oysters and seafood.

Because the Muscadet grape can be somewhat neutral in flavor, winemakers sometimes age the wine along with its lees – the spent yeast and other by-products of fermentation – to add complexity to the finished wine. Some Muscadet wines include a refreshing tickle of carbon dioxide that remains from the yeast.

Several appellations in the region produce Muscadet wine, the most important of which is Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine.