Grape Guide
Melon De Bourgogne
WhiteMelon de Bourgogne is a white Burgundian cross of Pinot and Gouais Blanc that found its true home at the Atlantic mouth of the Loire, where it is the only grape permitted in every Muscadet appellation. Frost tolerance and firm acidity yield crisp, saline, lightly citrus wines made for oysters and shellfish.
Key characteristics
- Natural cross of Pinot and Gouais Blanc, sibling of Chardonnay, Gamay Noir and Aligoté
- The only grape that the Muscadet appellations allow
- Mid ripening, with small berries and good frost resistance
- Low basal-bud fertility, so vines are better pruned long
- Highly prone to grey rot (botrytis) in the bunches; powdery mildew rarely troubles it
Typical flavors
Major regions
Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine (Loire-Atlantique) · Muscadet (Pays Nantais) · Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire · Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu · Muscadet crus communaux (Clisson, Gorges, Le Pallet) · Oregon (Willamette Valley) · Washington State
Also known as
Muscadet (Pays Nantais · Vendée) · Gamay Blanc (Aube · Beaujolais · Haute-Marne · Saône-et-Loire) · Latran (Anjou) · Plant de Bourgogne or Petit Bourgogne (Loire) · Melon (France)
Melon de Bourgogne is the grape behind Muscadet, the white wine of the Nantes country on France's Atlantic coast. Almost every hectare lies in the Loire-Atlantique and the adjoining corner of Maine-et-Loire, and the variety is the sole grape allowed in the Muscadet appellations. Its wines are typically pale, dry and light in alcohol, with brisk acidity, a faint salinity and a restrained citrus character rather than overt fruit.
The grape's reputation rests on two contrasting traditions. Most Muscadet is bottled young as a simple, refreshing aperitif and seafood wine. At the top end, wines aged for months on their fine lees, and the single-commune crus communaux that demand far longer, show greater texture, a rounder palate and an ability to develop for a decade or more. Outside the Loire, Melon is a niche variety, grown in small quantities in Oregon and Washington State.
Melon is an old Burgundian variety. An early twentieth century claim that it was already grown in Burgundy in the thirteenth century has no documentary backing. The earliest firm record comes from the Franche-Comté in 1567, when Philip II of Spain, then Count of Burgundy, issued an edict forbidding plantings of gamay, melon and similar varieties. Burgundy went on to ban Melon several more times, and it all but disappeared from its home region.
Sometime in the Middle Ages the variety made its way to the lower Loire, where it was called Plant de Bourgogne. White muscadet vines in Loire-Atlantique are mentioned in a document from 1635, and plantings grew through the seventeenth century as Dutch merchants looked for high-yielding grapes to distil into brandy. A popular story says Melon took the place of other vines after the harsh winter of 1709; no document backs this up, and records show the variety was already widespread around Nantes by 1615.
DNA profiling has shown that Melon is a natural cross between Pinot and Gouais Blanc, which puts it in the same sibling group as Aligoté, Gamay Noir and Chardonnay. Its name may come from the Latin word for mixing, or from the rounded shape of its leaves. Muscadet, the name that came to dominate in the Loire, may point to a faint musky character in the wine, or to the nutmeg that traders are said to have added before distillation. The Jura vine known as Melon à Queue Rouge is in fact Chardonnay.
Melon ripens in mid-season and carries small berries. The buds nearest the base of the cane have low fertility, so the vine crops better when pruned long than when pruned short. Its great strength is frost resistance, which suits the cool, maritime climate of the lower Loire, where spring and winter cold can damage other varieties. It does well on the region's poor soils, including gneiss, schist and granite, and on clay-silica soils generally. Powdery mildew and eutypa dieback are not significant concerns, but the bunches are highly prone to grey rot (botrytis), a risk in damp Atlantic autumns. Growers must therefore watch bunch health carefully and harvest at the right moment to keep the high natural acidity and low sugar levels that define the style.
Muscadet is nearly always dry, white and unoaked. Entry-level bottlings are bright and neutral, with lemon, green apple and a hint of sea spray, and are intended for drinking within two or three years of harvest. Wines labelled sur lie stay on their fine lees through the winter after harvest and are bottled directly from the tank or barrel without racking, which adds weight, a slight creaminess and sometimes a faint spritz. The crus communaux, such as Clisson, Gorges and Le Pallet, require extended lees contact, with minimums of 24 months for Clisson and Gorges and 17 months for Le Pallet, and lower permitted yields. These wines are more concentrated, mineral and savoury, and can age well. Bottlings from Oregon and Washington State follow the same dry, high-acid template.
Where it grows
Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine
The heartland of the variety, lying south and east of Nantes between the Sèvre Nantaise and Petite Maine rivers. It makes up roughly four fifths of the area claimed under Muscadet appellations and supplies the base for most sur lie bottlings.
Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire
A small appellation of roughly 200 hectares along the Loire east of Nantes, reaching into Maine-et-Loire.
Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu
A small appellation of about 300 hectares in the south-west of the region, around Lac de Grandlieu. Its growers have lately requested changes to the production rules.
Crus communaux
Clisson, Gorges and Le Pallet were recognised in 2011, and further communes have joined since, among them Goulaine, Monnières-Saint-Fiacre, Château-Thébaud and Mouzillon-Tillières. They have lower yield limits and longer lees ageing, and sit at the most serious end of Muscadet.
Oregon and Washington
Georges de Latour, a Napa Valley winemaker, introduced the grape to the United States, but it was long mislabelled as Pinot Blanc, and much of what was sold under that name before the 1980s was really Melon. Today small volumes are bottled in Oregon's Willamette Valley at wineries such as De Ponte, Eyrie and Bow & Arrow. In Washington, Bainbridge Island is home to Perennial Vintners, which also bottles it.