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2020 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Clisson “La Molette”
Domaine Michel Brégeon
Fred Lailler’s Clisson is front-loaded with flavor. The 2020 vintage was pretty toasty by Loire standards, with grapes easily reaching full ripeness. Additionally, this vineyard, situated on a sandy granite terroir instead of the region’s usual gabbro and gneiss, gives a rounder expression of the Melon grape. While there is a lot of fruit here, it’s a cool sort of fruit, more apples and pears than the tropical flavors we associate with ripeness in white wines. And it is refreshing, as you’d expect a Muscadet to be. The crisp finish always has you reaching for the next glass.
—Dustin Soiseth
Wine Type: | white |
Vintage: | 2020 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Melon de Bourgogne |
Appellation: | Muscadet Sèvre et Maine |
Country: | France |
Region: | Loire |
Producer: | André-Michel Brégeon |
Winemaker: | Fred Lailler |
Vineyard: | 50 years average, 7.8 ha total |
Soil: | Granite |
Farming: | Organic (certified) |
Alcohol: | 12% |
More from this Producer or Region

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2018 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine “Gorges”
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2023 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie
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It fills the mouth with suspicions of honeysuckle and pulpy stone fruits, all while maintaining classic notes of iodine and sea breeze that make this the vinous equivalent of tidepooling.

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About The Producer
André-Michel Brégeon
Michel Brégeon is part renegade, part crusader, and full-blown terroirist, ardently defending the Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine terroir. Thanks to his deep understanding of the land, he plays the game much differently than the region’s caves cooperatives and negociants, who produce en masse and lose the subtlety of the appellation. He worked for his family’s domaine before setting out on his own in 1975. When his father retired in 1989, he gave his remaining vineyard land to Michel. Today, Michel farms seven hectares of vineyards in clay, silica, and gabbro soils. Gabbro is old, blue-green, volcanic rock, rarely found in vineyard land. Formed by magma eruptions under the ocean floor, it imparts intense complexity to Michel’s wines.
About The Region
Loire
The defining feature of the Loire Valley, not surprisingly, is the Loire River. As the longest river in France, spanning more than 600 miles, this river connects seemingly disparate wine regions. Why else would Sancerre, with its Kimmeridgian limestone terroir be connected to Muscadet, an appellation that is 250 miles away?
Secondary in relevance to the historical, climatic, environmental, and cultural importance of the river are the wines and châteaux of the Jardin de la France. The kings and nobility of France built many hundreds of châteaux in the Loire but wine preceded the arrival of the noblesse and has since out-lived them as well.
Diversity abounds in the Loire. The aforementioned Kimmderidgian limestone of Sancerre is also found in Chablis. Chinon, Bourgueil, and Saumur boast the presence of tuffeau, a type of limestone unique to the Loire that has a yellowish tinge and a chalky texture. Savennières has schist, while Muscadet has volcanic, granite, and serpentinite based soils. In addition to geologic diversity, many, grape varieties are grown there too: Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Melon de Bourgogne are most prevalent, but (to name a few) Pinot Gris, Grolleau, Pinot Noir, Pineau d’Aunis, and Folle Blanche are also planted. These myriad of viticultural influences leads to the high quality production of every type of wine: red, white, rosé, sparkling, and dessert.
Like the Rhône and Provence, some of Kermit’s first imports came from the Loire, most notably the wines of Charles Joguet and Château d’Epiré—two producers who are featured in Kermit’s book Adventures on the Wine Route and with whom we still work today.
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2023 Coteaux du Loir Blanc
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2020 Saumur Champigny “La Marginale”
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Vouvray Brut “La Dilettante”
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2023 Quincy
Domaine Trotereau France | Loire
2023 Chinon “Les Petites Roches” Blanc
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2021 Bourgueil “Clos Sénéchal”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2021 Chinon “La Croix Boissée”
Bernard Baudry France | Loire
2021 Saumur-Champigny “Les Mémoires”
Thierry Germain France | Loire
2023 Jasnières
Pascal Janvier France | Loire
2020 Bourgueil “Nuits d’Ivresse”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2023 Vouvray
Champalou France | Loire
2023 Bourgueil “Trinch!”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2023 Coteaux du Loir Blanc
Pascal Janvier France | Loire
2020 Saumur Champigny “La Marginale”
Thierry Germain France | Loire
Vouvray Brut “La Dilettante”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2023 Quincy
Domaine Trotereau France | Loire
2023 Chinon “Les Petites Roches” Blanc
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2021 Bourgueil “Clos Sénéchal”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2021 Chinon “La Croix Boissée”
Bernard Baudry France | Loire
Where the newsletter started

Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch