2002 Clos des Briords

This is my first aged Briords. I knew by reputation that it matured well. It’s nice to see that firsthand. On the nose, strong stony minerality is accented by dried lemon, lemon curd, a mint/tarragon herbal note, beeswax, lime, and some dusty, earthy aged white wine character. This definitely shows a lot more complexity than any young Briords I’ve tasted. The palate is maintaining quite a bit of freshness while also showing those dried, pithy fruit and earthy maturing characteristics. Everything from the nose follows through beautifully, with a bit of citrus rind as well. The finish is quite complete and of solidly medium(+) length. It seems that the wine has likely gained some concentration as well as that additional complexity through aging, all as expected from a wine of this caliber. Really lovely stuff, and a good reminder that it’s well worth having some Muscadet in the cellar. Considering the significant amount of improvement through maturation (I assume; I didn’t have this vintage on release, but I’ve been following Briords for quite a few vintages at this point), this really is one of the great values of the wine world, and a very good wine by any measure. Thanks, Charles!

Doug,

That’s great to see, as I’ve stashed a bunch of 12’s and '14’s for the long haul (as well as buying many for the short and medium haul). The only aged Muscadet I’ve tried are some 1999 and 2002 Luneau-Papin Le “L” d’Or, which were excellent.

Thanks for the excellent TN.

Cheers,
Warren

WT- I have an '89 L d’Or with your name on it.
Had 3 bottles of Briords '88 but they are long gone.

I’m not sure how much Muscadet really evolves as it ages, and I know some fans of it who much prefer it as a young wine. It can hold on for many years without oxidizing and drink well certainly. It does seem to lose a bit of the acidity.

L d’Or is the only aged Muscadet I had much experience with before this. I’ve had a bottle here and there of some other wines, but quite a few L d’Or, mostly 1997 and 2002. The 1997 especially seemed to age very slowly, more so than this Briords.

Marc, I never saw a whole lot of development from those Luneau-Papin, but this Briords had quite a bit of developed character, which I really liked. There’s no question for me now that this is worth cellaring and does improve dramatically.

Marc/Doug/Warren - i’m an advocate for aging muscadet. the degree of age matters, though. while i haven’t had the opportunity to try bottles with 15+ years on it, i’ve found that my personal sweet spot is in the 5-10 year age range. while young muscadets deliver incredible enjoyment to me, bottlings like the Clos des Briords and Pepiere’s Clisson build depth and complexity i’ve found. fwiw, the 2005 Pepiere Clisson is really shredding right now and i CANNOT WAIT to try the 2010/2012/2014 with similar age.

thanks for the note doug - i haven’t had the opportunity to try the 2002, but have had the 2004 vintage twice. both times were great!

Muscadets such as Pepiere Briords and Luneau-Papin L D’or have a well-verified history of ageability at this point. Whether one will prefer them with age is another question. The 02 Briords, which I may have one or two bottles left of, is great, but if one is seeking the vibrancy of young Pepiere, one may be disappointed to have traded that in for the depth and creaminess of the 14 year old version. Matt is probably right about aging the Clissons, though, since the earliest vintage is the 05 (still going strong), one can’t be sure. VLM is not a believer in aging Clissons, but then he likes all his wines too young.

Jonathan said it better then my attempt.
The textures of the wines noticeably change.
So I have to agree that they do evolve.
Aromas and flavors may change less then these texture qualities.

The 2004 Briords is amazing now.
Will have to dig out an 02 to try soon.

Thanks for the notes. I have a case of the 2015. I think I’d need at least 3 cases if I’m going to try to hang on to a few bottles for 15 years!

I bought three cases of the 2015 in order to have enough to last me.

There are a lot of Muscadets that age well. And with the creation of the crus communaux appellations, we are seeing a lot more.

I think if they don’t oxidise, most wines end to evolve into a desiccated-fruit character, or more of a brioche/spiced bread kind of style. I prefer the former.

Luneau-Papin’s L d’Or seems to be bullet-proof (the family still have small stocks of the 1976, the first vintage, which is drinking well although the 1989 is superior) but I agree with above posts that suggests many wines are at their best between 6-ish and 10- to 15-ish years.

More or less. As far as aging goes, 2002 (and 1996) have always been something special at Pépière. The Clisson is made differently, with extended lees aging and I find that the wine comes out more mature (ditto Quatre, obviously and we’ll see on the Monnières). That being said, I don’t know that we’ve had the equivalent of 1996/2002 yet for Clisson. Maybe the 2014 will be that wine. There is a trade off to be made between the vibrant crunchiness of youth and the more evolved aromas and textures of Muscadet and after trial and error (and oxidized wine) I’ve found that my sweet spot is on the younger side, 0-5 years from release, but I reserve the right to change that for any particular wine. Additionally, I pretty much drink Pépière exclusively.