If you love Muscadet as much as I do, here’s a wine to hoard. Or purchase and share, whatevs. It’s California Melon. The former being the state (duh) and the later being the name of the grape.

Muscadet from the Loire Valley is a wine made from the Melon (de Bourgogne) grape. Outside of this (my favorite) wine region in France, one place domestically you can find the grape is Oregon. And, as this wine demonstrates, Melon is also in California. (Back in the day, a lot of what was thought to be Pinot Blanc in that state was actually Melon de Bourgogne.)

California Melon: 2015 Lieu Dit Santa Maria Valley

As an enormous Muscadet fan, I was a quite curious about how the grape would work in California. Not only was my inquisitive nature rewarded, but so were my taste buds. Super-delicious. The Lieu Dit compares favorably to any top wine from Muscadet I’ve had. And, taking a look at the bottle, it certainly fills me with #LabelLust.

No doubt you and I can use our immense deductive powers of reasoning to figure this is a wine tailor-made for oysters. I actually enjoyed it with potato and spinach pierogis. Which would probably look pretty cool on a label, too. But not as evocative as an oyster in its shell.

So what’s it like on the inside? Well this is a wine with an initial bracing quality that chills out into a more textured savory delight. It’s certainly great on it’s own, seafood and shellfish an obv match, and you could probably get away with pairing the Lieu Dit with lighter chicken and pork preparations.

Or chug it with a steak, who cares? It’s your life and your wine to do with as you please.

(I could see it being nice with a skirt steak slathered in chimichurri, BTW.)

Average retail price: $22.

Tags: california melon, lieu dit melon, santa maria valley melon