2023 Batard Langelier Muscadet-Sevre-et-Maine Les Prieres

Jeremie and Claire Batard-Langelier are third generation winemakers working with Jeremie's parents with the desire to elevate their appellation. Located just southeast of Nantes, in the commune of Maisdon sur Sevre, in Muscadet Sevre et Maine between Vertou and Clisson, the vineyards cover approximately 24 hectares are planted upon various soils: sandy loam, gabbros, gneiss and biotite granite. About 95% of their vines (averaging 40 years) are Melon de Bourgogne with the rest made up of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, all trained in "guyot Nantais", a local style of vine training. The estate was created in 1910 by Denis Batard and then in 1982 his son Pascal took over seeking to express the essence of Muscadet. Pascal continued the Nantaise tradition he learned from his father Denis and aware of the growing fragility of the biodiversity turned to lutte raisonee and abandoned chemical fertilizers in 1995. In 2009 Jeremie, after traveling the world, returned to the vineyards with a newfound source of passion. Along with this wife Claire Langelier, who is not from the region, they work the entire estate from vineyard to trade. Claire contributes a unique outsiders perspective, helping to pull Muscadet out of it's box and to express it's unique terroir. In 2014 the estate was in their first year of conversion to organic farming.

The wine making is traditional: light pressing, debourbages and fermentations in underground cement vats typical of the region. The wines are aged on the lees over long periods of time, adapted to each parcel in order to obtain an optimal expression of the different parcels.