There are exciting things happening in Muscadet these days (if you want to learn just how exciting, see our Cru Muscadet tasting on September 30th). Growers whose wines have been mis-cast as non-descript thirst quenchers for generations have begun to stand on their business, raising the quality of their farming and picking out the very best vineyards for ever finer cuvees. If this whole new world of premium quality wine has a founding father, it is Marc Ollivier of Domaine de la Pepiere, who purchased his domaine in 1985 and began refining his approach long before anyone else thought, well, much of anything at all about Muscadet. Today, in the hands of Marc’s successors Remi Branger and Gwénaëlle Croix, Pepiere is a leading proponent of the new Cru Communale appellations of Muscadet, but even their standard Muscadet has a lot to offer. Aromas of apple butter and meyer lemon, lime and white flowers and salt dusted over everything. There’s a rare sort of resonance to the nose, like it has a finish of its own. There’s plenty on the palate too, apple and lemon curd and with salt and rosemary that linger long on the finish. Oysters are just one sort of seafood that will make a great match here.