COMPLEMEN’TERRE - MARION PESCHEUX AND MANU LANDRON
France, Loire-Atlantique, Muscadet - Le Pallet
We pleased to have new arrivals from Marion and Manu at Complemen'Terre, responsible for some of our favourite expressions of the mosaic-soils of Muscadet within just a 500m radius.
Following biodynamic principles, Marion and Manu farm a cluster of twelve micro-parcels totalling nine hectares, planted mainly with Melon B. Each wine is a keen reflection of that parcel's terroir, with vinifications kept as close as possible between cuvees to help make the differences in their source explicit.
We've just received a handful of new releases from the 18,19 and 20 vintages: Ker Ma 2020, Le Breil 2019 - both bottled in July 2020 after 10 months on the lees and the return of Le Mortier Gobin - the 2018 is a long story with a happy ending, aged for 24 months in tank and barrel.
All sharing a unifying acidity and salinity, the detail and contrast Marion and Manu can coax out of their parcels never fails to impress.
We spoke with Manu recently to get the run down on the new arrivals:
2020 - Ker Ma - Melon de B.
"This is a pretty high-yielding parcel for us, 0.70ha of planted on amphibolite- its the same north-facing vineyard as Croix Moriceau, the vines for that are at the top of the slope on orthogneiss. It's funny, Croix Moriceau is always a fast fermentation, and Ker Ma is much slower. Ker Ma finished fermentation in June 2021, and was bottled shortly afterwards. 2020 for me, was the best for all the wines I think. It's yielded light wines with great acidity and really good balance. We had a little disease that year, but not much. It was a lovely vintage."
Manual harvesting of 40 year old vines. Direct pressing, with a 24 hour slow decanting before fermentation to settle the wine. On the lees in tank for 10 months.
2019 - Le Breil - Melon de B.
"2019 we had a particularly small crop thanks to the frost, and whilst the yields were down for this parcel, it's always one of the most reliable in the cellar. We share this parcel with my dad actually, its definitely one of the nicest in the AOC. We love it. It's a half hectare on soft sandy soils on orthogneiss and quartz, south-east facing. There's all sorts growing in the grass here, it's super healthy. With having such a small crop in 2019, we decided to age a third of it in barrel, and the rest in one tank- a one off for 2019! "
Manual harvesting of 60 year old vines. Direct pressing, with a 24 hour slow decanting before fermentation to settle the wine. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts, alcoholic and Malolactic fermentation both complete within 10 days. Aged one third in barrel, two-thirds in stainless steel. Bottled in July 2020 after 10 months on the lees.
2018 - Le Mortier Gobin - Melon de B.
"This is a beautiful half hectare parcel, planted by my Grandfather 60 years ago. It's on silty soils like the parcel for Tribute- though deeper and richer- over sandstone and orthogneiss. It's south facing, sloping towards the river. But 2018 was not an easy vintage for this wine!"
"Yields were good, but the fermentation was really slow. We were due to move cellars in 2019, from my parents to our own- but Mortier Gobin still hadn't finished its sugars, and we left it behind. When we checked later, it had completely stalled. We added some lees from ourselves and some from Agnes & Jack Carroget in Ancenis, to try and kick start the fermentation. Which worked! But when we moved it to the new winery, it was really reductive, super stinky, so we moved it to a barrel to open it up. Finally, tasting it at harvest in 2020, it had lost 95% of that reduction, it was tasting great."
"We're pretty happy it came round, and we learnt a lot about that parcel in 2018. We've decided we're not going to do any more ageing in stainless for that parcel, we're using concrete, it wants something more porous. My dad always said 'Mortier Gobin doesn't like to be blended, it likes to be on its own' - its a funny one- there's such amazing potential in this vineyard, and the 2018 helped us get closer to unlocking it."
Manual harvesting of 60 year old vines. Direct pressing, with a 24 hour slow decanting before fermentation to settle the wine. Fermented and aged in stainless steel for 12 months, before restarting fermentation with lees both from the cellar and from Agnes & Jack Carroget in Ancenis, moved to barrel for a further 12 months ageing. Bottled in 2020.
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