Domaine de la Pépière, Les Gras Moutons Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 2023

First bottled in 2007, the “Fat Sheep” is a lieu-dit made up of  2 parcels totalling 1.7 hectares in the cru of Monnières-Saint Fiacre. Gras Moutons could be includes in their cru Monnières bottling, but Marc and Rémi have chosen to bottle these "younger"  vines of 20 to 70 years old separately. The farming is organic and harvest and all work by hand as for all Pépière vineyards. It came into the Pépière fold through partner Rémi Branger, whose father farmed it for years. The gentle slope faces south and thus ripens well, but slowly, thanks to the constant wind blowing across the vineyard; as a result it is typically the last to be harvested. The soil features gneiss--a compressed form of granite that has a very different impact than the granites found in other Pépière sites--as well as amphibolite rocks scattered throughout.

As for all Pepière wines, the fruit is direct-pressed and the juice settled naturally for 12 hours. It is then fermented in stainless steel tanks with natural yeasts; the wine is aged on its lees in large vats--9 months in the case of Gras Moutons-- until bottling without fining or filtering. Use of sulfur is moderate to very little. Gras Moutons is notably rich, with a creamy, velvety texture wrapped around a strong mineral and acid core and with a finish of incredible length.