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Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $15.05
12 bottles: $14.75
A classic dry and crisp Brut from clay and chalk soil vineyards in the Anjou and Touraine regions of the Loire Valley...
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $15.41
12 bottles: $15.10
A classic dry and crisp Brut Rosé made of 100% Cabernet Franc from clay and chalk soil vineyards in the Anjou and...
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $13.99
A delicious Crémant that punches well above the weight of its price tag. Its intense pink salmon hue hints at the...
DC
90
Sale
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $16.94 $18.80
12 bottles: $15.05
Peach and honey with smoky mineral notes. Toasted plums and voluminous mouthfeel moving to a crisp finish. (Bronze) -...
DC
88
Rapid Ship
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $20.94
12 bottles: $20.52
Sliced pears, lemon curd, white peaches and pastries on the nose. Medium-bodied with a creamy mousse and subtle,...
12 FREE
WE
89
JS
89
White
750ml
Bottle: $13.43
12 bottles: $13.16
Simply delicious Melon de Bourgogne! Just the right amount of acidity and final dryness to keep it well balanced....
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White
750ml
Bottle: $11.94 $13.43
12 bottles: $11.52
Chateau de la Chesnaie is a family owned estate dedicated to the production of high quality Muscadet. This wine is...
Case only
White
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White
750ml
Bottle: $12.94 $14.30
12 bottles: $12.35
Certified HVE3*. Sourced from 30-year-old Muscadet vines planted on a gentle slope of sandy/silty soils overlaid on a...
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $15.94
Certified HVE3*. Sourced from 40-year-old Muscadet vines planted in shallow soils of disintegrated mica/schist....
White
750ml
Bottle: $15.41
12 bottles: $15.10
Certified HVE3*. Sourced from 40-year-old Muscadet vines planted in shallow soils of disintegrated mica/schist....
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White
750ml
Bottle: $11.94 $12.57
Clean tasting with crisp acidity and a bright, fresh minerality. This is an excellent Muscadet, light and refreshing....
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Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $23.94 $25.60
12 bottles: $23.56
Plump and forward overall, with a bracing streak of walnut running through a core of friendly pear and apple notes,...
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $17.94
12 bottles: $17.58
12 FREE
Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $18.60
12 bottles: $18.23
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Sparkling
750ml
Bottle: $19.18 $20.19
12 bottles: $18.62
White
White
White
750ml
Bottle: $15.00
12 bottles: $14.70
This fresh and vibrant Muscadet shows lifted notes of Meyer lemon, white peach, and Key lime, with a mouthwatering...
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $17.35 $19.28
12 bottles: $15.05

Champagne Blend Melon de Bourgogne Muscat Nebbiolo France Loire Valley

The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.

One of the more unusual French grape varietals, Melon de Bourgogne has been grown in and around the Loire Valley for several hundred years. In fact, this grape was first planted in the Loire region of Pays Nantais back in the mid 17th century, after a devastating frost decimated most of the red grapes which were typical in the area. The winemakers of Pays Nantais were keen to cultivate vines which were hardy, high yielding, and capable of surviving another such frost, and so turned their attention to Melon de Bourgogne for this very reason. The native home of the varietal is actually in Burgundy, where it is still grown to a lesser extent.


Because Melon de Bourgogne produces naturally heavy yields, the vintners of Pays Nantais go to great lengths to reduce the amount of fruit the vines bear. This allows the finest characteristics of the grape to come forward, and also opens up the opportunity for it to express the wonderful granite and schist soils in which the vines are grown. Melon de Bourgogne is a minerally white wine grape varietal, with a very subtle set of fruit flavors. It is prized for its freshness and brightness, and is seeing a revival in the twenty first century as an excellent wine for pairing with a wide range of foods.

One of the most widely grown and easily recognized wine grape varietals in the world is the Muscat, an ancient grape with an exceptional amount of versatility. For centuries, Muscat varietal grapes have been used all over Europe for the production of wonderfully fruity wines of many different shades and colors, which, with their strong 'grapey' flavor have come to be known as a quintessential fine wine grape. Their relatively high acidity also means they are ideal for the production of sparkling wines, and the fizzy Muscat wines of Italy are widely agreed to be amongst the best in the world. In more recent years, New World countries have shown a huge amount of flair when it comes to the Muscat grape, and have had plenty of success in allowing its natural and vibrant character to come through in the bottle.

The Nebbiolo grape varietal is widely understood to be the fruit responsible for Italy's finest aged wines. However, its popularity and reliability as a grape which gives out outstanding flavors and aromas has led it to be planted in many countries around the world, with much success. These purple grapes are distinguishable by the fact that they take on a milky dust as they begin to reach maturity, leading many to claim that this is the reason for their unusual name, which means 'fog' in Italian. Nebbiolo grapes produce wines which have a wide range of beautiful and fascinating flavors, the most common of which are rich, dark and complex, such as violet, truffle, tobacco and prunes. They are generally aged for many years to balance out their characteristics, as their natural tannin levels tend to be very high.

Year in, year out, France enjoys its prestigious reputation as the producer of the finest wines in the world. With a wine making history which spans several thousand years and owes its expertise to the Romans, it comes as little surprise that this most highly esteemed of the Old World wine countries continues to impress and enchant both novices and experts to this day. Despite the rise in quality of wines from neighboring European countries, not to mention the New World, the French wine industry continues to boom, with up to eight billion bottles being produced in recent years. However, France prides itself on always putting quality before quantity, and the wide range in fine produce is a testament to the dedication and knowledge of the wineries across the country. Indeed, from rich and complex reds to light and aromatic white wines, French wines are as varied and interesting as they are enjoyable to drink, making this country a firm favorite for wine lovers across the globe.

Within France, the one region most closely associated with fine white and rosé wines is surely the Loire Valley. With over eight controlled appellations, and a relatively large expanse of land covering this wide valley, the Loire Valley is an ideal location for wineries wishing to produce large quantities of excellent quality vines for their wine production. Indeed, this region has been associated with excellent white wines for over a thousand years, with it once being the favorite wine region for the crowned heads of England, France and beyond. Today, it produces a wide range of white wines, and several rosé and red varieties also. It is also widely celebrated for being home to some of France's most lively and fruity sparkling crémant wines, which more than match those produced in nearby Champagne.