The white wine of the Nantes vineyard, made from melon de Bourgogne and left on its lees through the winter before bottling. Dry, saline and cheap for what it is, and the city's default glass.

The vines start about half an hour outside Nantes, on the schist and gneiss between the Sèvre Nantaise and the Maine, and the grape is melon de Bourgogne. What separates Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie from ordinary Muscadet is the élevage: the wine stays on its fine lees through the winter after harvest and is drawn straight off them at bottling, which gives it a faint prickle of carbon dioxide and a texture it would not otherwise have. For decades the appellation was sold as cheap oyster wine and priced accordingly, and only recently have single-parcel growers pushed the region back up.

Where to eat Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie in Nantes

3 editor picks for Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie in Nantes, ranked by editorial score. All Nantes signature dishes · Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie across every city.

Make it at home

Serves 420 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 24 oysters, ideally from the Bourgneuf bay or the Vendée-Atlantique beds
  • 1 bottle Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie, well chilled
  • 2 shallots, very finely chopped
  • 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Coarsely cracked black pepper
  • Rye or sourdough bread and salted butter, to serve
  • Lemon wedges

Method

  1. Make the mignonette first: stir the shallots into the vinegar with a good grind of black pepper and leave it to sit for 20 minutes so the shallot softens.
  2. Chill the wine hard, to about 8C. Sur lie Muscadet shows its texture better slightly less cold than most people serve white wine, so take it out of the fridge a few minutes before pouring.
  3. Shuck the oysters over a bowl to catch the liquor, working the knife into the hinge and twisting rather than levering. Cut the muscle cleanly from the top shell, then from the bottom.
  4. Set them on a tray of crushed ice, pouring any caught liquor back into the shells.
  5. Serve with the mignonette, lemon, buttered bread and the wine. The saline finish of the Muscadet is doing the same job as the lemon, so go easy on both.

Editor tip. Buy from a shop that can name the commune. The gap between a supermarket Muscadet and a bottle from Le Landreau is larger than the price gap.

Common allergens: Sulphites.