2015 or 2016 for muscadet?

I’ve found some of the 15s a little fat after the awesome 14s - generally speaking. I’ve not delved into the 2016s. Anyone have thoughts / preferences between the two vintages? Any side by side tastings to report?

Not really what you’re looking for but a good thread Sunday TNs - A trio of Briords - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Bump…surely there is now a potential consensus?

Personally, I’ve found the 16’s to be much leaner than the 15’s. The problem is they lack the verve and mineral intensity of the 14’s, which was a perfect muscadet vintage for me. If I had to describe the vintages IMO:

14 – As Parker would say, vintage of the century
15 – Hedonistic pleasure
16 – Kind of have to work to like them

Based only on Pepieres Briords (the only Muscadet I’ve had in all three years), I’d mostly agree with Jared. Though I abhor the descriptive “hedonistic,” it is a slightly fleshier vintage, but less nervy and tangy than the 14. The 16 was the first Briords in some time I gave a pass on.

My ranking so far:
1- 2014= gorgeous and balanced, bright
2- 2016= very pretty with slightly bigger fruit than 2014 but more acidity and balance and verve than 2015s
3- 2015= fat and hedonistic, easy drinking with some higher alcohol levels evident as time goes on, not my favorite

Will be interesting to see how they age - I find good Melon to be an eminently cellar-worthy wine.

Apropos ought Briordes: I never got to taste the '04, but a recent '05 from magnum was ungodly good. I believe '05 was thought to be sub-optimally ripe. Perhaps a transferrable pattern prediction to the '14-'15 vintages.

I’m included in the majority that holds the 2014 as head-and-shoulders above the 2015s/2016s, but will caveat my response as having had only small samples of each vintage.

I’ll take 2015 over 2016.

The 2015’s lush, (yes fat) characteristics is more favorable to me than what I found to be with the shorter/clipped finish on the, yet a more mineral-infused, 2016s. I think the acidity/citrus character with both vintages is just about equal, but still relatively lower than the ones from 2014s. Admittedly, the 2015/2016 vintages are not the ones that I would store for the long term, but like enough to drink sooner rather than later.

Wine geeks have a very bad habit of dismissing vintages 5 minutes after they are released.

The wine will always have the last word.

Just how bad can ripe (or unripe) Muscadet be? Either way, you’ve got wine that can age for decades that cost a farthing.

Tried the 14 Briords in the last week

Electric indeed’

For me, not that good really. I get that it’s a low risk proposition for the price, and maybe the fatter wines still age (maybe) but I want electric, zingy, mineral, crisp whites that scream for seafood and are great for drinking now. To me the 2015s don’t have that, at least not the ones I’ve had. Briords is the classic example. Yes, it’s decent and excellent value, but it’s too fat and round and doesn’t have enough acid. More, without sufficient acidity I find the wines can have a somewhat oxidative character that doesn’t work.

So, 2014 super awesome, just wish I’d bought more or kept my hands off of what I had. 2016 okay based on early sampling but maybe a bit boring. 2015 too ripe for my taste, based on what I’ve had.

I’m in the category of buying some 15 and/or 16 to drink but not to age.

I managed to put some 12s and 14s away for aging.

It will be curious to see how long all of us can carry on a debate in the face of such massive and discouraging agreement. Sure, some of us prefer the 15 to the 16 or the 16 to the 15, but we’re all describing the wines in the same way. Anyone who knows Muscadet and hasn’t tasted the wines would have an idea of what is being talked about. It’s shameful to see such unanimity on this board.

I don’t understand how 2015 Briords could be described as fat. Fatter than 2014 Briords, sure, but on an absolute level, it’s still muscadet.

I think this is the point I was making. It’s the melon grape for goodness sakes…how fat can it be?? We’re not talking white Rhone here.

That’s what happens when a rare Muscadet subject is posted … us who are starved-for-Muscadet conversations go nuts with weighing in on our experienced nuances of the varietal just to get in on the post.

In most cases, I’d gladly drink both, so I really don’t care whether '15 or '16 wins at the end. Let’s hear more!

This is going to sound silly but I’ve never really considered vintage when buying Muscadet, I just buy it. The top producers and wines are great every vintage, yes a little bit different, but as somebody said before a fat muscadet is still a muscadet and by no means a big wine… I know they aren’t wines for everybody and I love that because I can get killer wines for under $30, often even less.

I, typically don’t age these more than 5 years so still drinking some '13 though most gone. I have to agree that '14 was good '15 better and '16 not so good. As to waiting to see, they generally keep but don’t improve much so if it is not so good on release, it is unlikely to get better.

Lawrence, you prefer '15 to '14? I haven’t heard much of that.