This Loire sparkler has been enjoying plenty of love among those who know it, and no wonder. It’s a hand-harvested, estate-grown, biodynamic, naturally fermented, low-dosage fizz that shows up many conventional Champagnes for both quality and value. Topping off an impressive package is the marvellous label designed by iconic French illustrator Michel Tolmer (of Mimi, Fifi and Glouglou fame).

Jo Landron is not a fan of using Muscadet’s Melon de Bourgogne for sparkling wine, preferring instead a blend of around 50 to 60% Folle Blanche (grown on sandy clay) with a balance of Pinot Noir (grown on gravelly soils). Vine age ranges from 18 to 30 years. The yields are typically between 50 and 60 hl/ha—far lower than the average yields in Champagne. The base wines ferment naturally and then go through a traditional second fermentation in bottle, where they remain for a minimum of 24 months. The dosage ranges from zero to a low 5 g/L (depending on the bottling). Moreover, the fruit for this cuvée is always from a single vintage (2020 in this case).

This list of attributes sounds like the approach of a top Champagne grower, not a humble Muscadet producer! It's no surprise, then, that the result is a wine of impressive depth and complexity. Expect a super-mineral, earthy, rocky wine with waves of racy citrus, fresh nectarine and lots of flinty, talc-like, salty complexity, then a delicious lick of smoky Pinot cherry to close. This is simply one of the classiest sparkling bargains going around.

Biodynamic. Landron's most mineral cuvée derives its name from the greenish, metamorphic bedrock (amphibolite) that dominates the soils in which it is grown. Produced from vines aged between 35 and 40 years, this unique wine was vinified with only a short period on lees, as Jo Landron wanted to retain as much freshness and minerality as possible. Only minor doses of sulphur were used to block malo. Bottling occurred early (in March, and without filtration), to retain the earth-to-glass essence of the wine.

Biodynamic. One of Landron’s emblematic cuvées, Amphibolite, takes its name from the greenish, metamorphic bedrock (amphibolite) where this wine is grown. Produced from vines aged between 35 and 40 years, this was vinified with only a short period on lees, as Jo Landron wants to retain as much freshness and minerality as possible.“It’s a free-spirited-muscadet,” he says. Only minor doses of sulphur are used to block malolactic conversion. Bottling without filtration occurs early (in March) to retain the wine’s earth-to-glass essence.

With some lovely textural padding this year, it’s an ultra-pure, racy expression of Muscadet loaded with white floral notes and all kinds of citrus underpinned by the briny, iodine minerality that is a hallmark of this cuvée. Sculpted and steely, it’s all salted apple and spring flower, penetrating acidity binding the mouthwatering tension to the wine’s well-honed texture. A Landron classic!

Jo Landron’s La Louvetrie cuvée originates from soils rich in amphibolite, sand, clay and gneiss. It remains the estate’s only wine made from a blend of different sites (and includes younger-vine fruit from Landron’s top vineyards). The vines for this release are 15-30 years old and cropped low (for Muscadet) at just 50hl/ha. It was bottled with a low dose of sulphur after an élevage between eight and 12 months.

It is a blinder of a wine, packed full of juicy fruit and vibrant Atlantic zing. The new vintage is not dissimilar to last year’s stunner, with generous, zesty, pithy, lemon/lime fruit alongside a ton of salinity. It glides with fantastic vibrancy across the palate, with oodles of compact fruit balanced by a mouth-watering stony/savoury element and a cool finish that crackles with freshness and length. The value on offer here is off the charts.

Biodynamic. The Château de la Carizière in Haye Fouassière dates to 1926. Jo Landron took over the estate’s vines in 1998, and immediately began converting the vineyard to organics. The vineyard covers 10 hectares of orthogneiss terroir, planted with vines aged between 55 and 70 years. This wine is drawn from four hectares, where the yields are strictly curbed as low as 38 ha/hectare. Harvested by hand and fermented with wild yeasts, the wine aged on its lees for 10 months before bottling. A model of finesse and lightness, it’s a fantastically vibrant and pulpy Muscadet, with beautifully crisp, stony finish.

Landron’s tour de force, Le Fief du Breil, comes from a single, six-hectare biodynamically farmed vineyard on a south-facing slope above the Sèvre River in La Haye-Fouassière. Fief is a term from the Middle Ages, meaning a piece of land once associated with (and probably owned by) the local Abbey or Duke. This implies quality, as the local rulers tended to keep the best parcels for themselves. Breil means ‘next to the forest’, indicating the woodland this parcel borders. Old walls surround the vines, another sign of its historical significance.

The soils here are rich in silex (flint), river pebbles, quartz and granite, all laid over a bedrock of orthogneiss—a geologically complex site. And while Muscadet is generally flat, Jo notes that this vineyard is on “a hill by local standards”, as you can see in this clip. The 50-year-old vines open directly to the south, offering ideal exposure to produce one of the region’s benchmarks.

As you might expect from this great estate's oldest, low-yielding vines, this is Muscadet at its most penetrating and precise. Aged on its lees for 36 months, the wine has developed intense, smoky, iodine-rich characters on the nose, leading to a pulpy, smooth texture shot through with citrus pith, camomile and an almond oil and resinous complexity. This is supported by saline freshness and mineral sensation. A stunning Muscadet. Although drinking well now, Le Fief du Breil cellars wonderfully, developing extraordinary mineral crunch as it matures over the years. If you can wait, give it five years to unfurl. If drinking it sooner, give it a good decant and marvel at the magic that unfolds in the glass over a few hours. A multi-layered, terroir-driven bargain from one of the Loire’s finest growers.

Biodynamic. Les Houx, in La Haye-Fouassière, is one of Landron’s oldest vineyards. The mature, low-yielding vines are rooted in shallow sandy/clay soils, rich in quartz and shot through with iron, which gives the wine a flinty nature. The bedrock is gneiss and clay. It’s a brilliant terroir that gives a denser, fleshier, more complex style of Muscadet. Although more opulent and layered than Landron’s other wines, this parcel's rocky, acid soils impart a balancing freshness, even in warmer years. 

The grapes are harvested by hand and fermented with indigenous yeasts. The wine ages on its lees for a lengthy 18 months before bottling. Landron is now using the Italian-made Tava amphorae for 30% of the wine and is delighted with the results. The lion’s share still ages in glass-lined concrete. 

The dense, structured, lingering palate delivers textural stone fruits and thyme interwoven with the crushed-chalk mineral signature of these sandstone soils. It’s a dynamic Muscadet that goes far beyond the drink-with-oysters cliché. Pair it with substantial fish or white meat dishes that call for something savoury and mineral.