Jo Landron Muscadet, 'Le Fief du Breil'

Melon de Bourgogne

Loire Valley, France

The story of the Landron family in Muscadet starts in 1945, when Pierre and Julien Landron bought land to expand their father’s holdings, at the time a princely three hectares. They went their separate ways in 1967, with Pierre fully taking over the running of the vineyards. In 1979, Joseph Landron – nicknamed “Jo” – joined his father at the domain. He shows profound respect for the work accomplished by his father. With his uncle, however, they began modernizing the domain, going from horse-ploughing to chemical treatments. They found these techniques didn’t fit in at their domain, and dreamed of converting to organics, something that Pierre had refused to even contemplate. Yet in 1987, when the vines were poisoned by a weed killer, Pierre Landron listened to his son. The domain hasn’t used weed killer since, and since that very year, the soils are tilled.

Le Fief du Breil comes from a single, six-hectare biodynamically farmed vineyard, situated on a south-facing slope above the Sèvre river in La Haye-Fouassière. Fief is a term from the Middle Ages which means a piece of land once associated with (and probably owned by) the local Abbey or Duke. This in turn infers quality, as the local rulers tended to keep the best parcels for themselves. Breil means ‘next to the forest’, indicating the woodland this parcel borders. The vines are also surrounded by old walls, another sign of its historical significance.