Wine - Imported - Loire Valley - Biodynamic - Jo Landron

Jo Landron has made a name for himself as one of the major figures in French winemaking. Along with Domaine de l’Ecu and Luneau Papin, he flies the flag for Muscadet. 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.

Pierre Landron retired in 1990, leaving his son at the head of the domain. With the new generation came new practices. Jo Landron converted the domain to organics from 1999 and to biodynamics in 2011 (Ecocert°).

The vineyard spans 48 hectares, divided into two domains: Château de la Carizière in Haye Fouassière, and Domaine de la Louvetrie sur hillsides of Sèvre. Of almost 80 winemakers, only 20 remain. Rather than seeing the vines ripped out, Jo accepted to buy them. Melon de Bourgogne, or Muscadet as it’s known in these parts, is the grape of choice here, introduced to the region in the 18th century. This grape, with impressive resistance to the cold, can produce superb white wines, with a lovely bracing acidity and lightly iodised notes. It can be enjoyed with a wide variety of foods but certain cuvées can drink perfectly well by themselves.