As the voice of the new generation at the Chéreau Carré winery in France’s Loire Valley, Louise Chéreau is shaking things up by creating fresh new expressions of traditional grapes and terroirs with her new line called Vices & Vertus. In this spirit, she’s releasing a bottle-fermented sparkling wine made with melon de bourgogne, the traditional grape of Muscadet. The fruit comes from 40+ year-old vines at the winery’s Chasseloir estate, a prime location on the Maine river, on schist soils. This wine shows off a different side of muscadet and hints at the immense potential of this region for sparkling wines.

Vinification – This sparkling wine is made entirely in-house using the méthode traditionelle. After initial fermentation in underground cement tanks, the wine undergoes a secondary fermentation in bottle and is aged on the lees for fifteen months. The dosage of 5.7g/L (Brut) was chosen to accent the freshness and aromatics and was done with grape must from estate fruit. The grapes all come from the 2020 harvest in this release of Orgueil. Disgorgement was done by hand at the winery in June 19th, 2024. The liqueur de tirage is made from an older vintage of their very old-vine Comte Leloup Muscadet.

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