Marc Pesnot / Muscadet, Japan and magic potions !
Marc Pesnot or the man who will make you love muscadet. Portrait of a star winemaker in Japan who made the glory of the vineyard.
In the heart of the Muscadet, hides Marc Pesnot. Settled in Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, this winegrower remains like an undefined character (UFO we could say) in the nantais vineyard area. He runs his domaine in the most natural possible way : the grape is hand picked, quality takes priority over quantity, no sugar, no artificial yeast or sulphur input. Unusual in these vineyard though today more and more winegrowers are rehabilitating those magnificent terroirs. Marc is there today, thank to a revelation he had in the mid nineties. He was fascinated by some wine tasting he did of Lapierre “Beaujolais”, Pierre Overnoy “Arbois-Pupillin” and a few good bottles of Domaine Gramenon. He was seduced by this magic potions. “I thought that wine was so splendid. Once I tasted it, I could not turn back. It was just purity… We can drink one litre in the evening and not have headache or cramp the next morning ! ”
After thought and numerous advices, the significant turn happened in the years 2000 in his Domaine de la Sénéchalière when he became the only local winegrower to produce 100% natural wines. As far as terroir, Marc Pesnot has the best. His old vines of “Folle Blanche” for instance, are 70 years old and have always been manipulated with great care by previous generations, without fertilizer or any external input. The plots produce vintages reflecting the place. The terroir concept finds its place there ! In order to know the other significant turn in Marc wines path, one must go back to the 2007 vintage. That year, he chose to pick his grapes in two steps in order to get better homogeneity in ripeness. Cuvées were vinified separately then assembled after tasting. Where the Nantais vineyard has difficulty dealing with that complex vintage, the return on Marc’s wines is very good. This process has been followed each year since. From now on “Wine of France”, the Muscadet of Marc Pesnot meets national and international success; over 75% of the harvest is exported (he has a japanese partner). A winegrower who brings glory to the Muscadet. Another Muscadet. It does a lot of good !
