LES CHANTS JUMEAUX - CHLOELIE CHOLOT-LOUIS & MATTHIEU L’HOTELIER
FRANCE, LOIRE, ANCENIS
Welcoming new wines from Chloelie & Matthieu at Les Chants Jumeaux, a trio of Melon de B that brim with life and just the right dose of wild character that make them so thrilling.
First making wine in an isolated shed with a loose-straw floor (or on occasion, a borrowed beach) Matthieu L'Hotelier's unique approach has been an inspiration since the earliest days of Under The Bonnet. Joined in the project by his partner, Chloélie Cholot-Louis in 2020, Les Chants Jumeaux continues on their journey from strength to strength.
With an approach to winemaking drawing parallels with the experimental art & music communities they're a strong part of, Chloélie & Matthieu are producing vivid, alternative expressions of the far-eastern zone of the Muscadet region.
Matt set up shop in 2012, first leasing 1.8 hectares of Chenin and tiny plantings of local red varieties outside Ancenis. Once Chloélie joined the project, the pair set their sights on a 17th-century farm they took over together in the summer of 2022, with 7 hectares of meadow outside the village of Montrelais. The farm was under vine until the 1950s, and they started re-planting in 2023 with 0.7ha of Pineau d'Aunis. The old cowshed is now their new cellar.
In Montrelais - equidistant between Ancenis and Angers - Matthieu & Chloelie are farming the last 2.5 hectares of vines of the 300ha once planted around the village. Since 2012, Matthieu has been as hands-off and low-input as is possible with viticulture, allowing nature to take its course and working with what is provided. The vines are ploughed and treated without synthetic products, using local plant concoctions instead.
Thanks to the cowshed affording them a little more cellar space, they have now started their négociant project to experiment with expressions of Melon de B that channel their vision of Muscadet's possibilities.
The three new wines are hand-harvested from two organic parcels in the hamlets of Loroux-Bottereau and La Rebourgère, over Mica-Schist, Gneiss and Granite. All the wines undergo their 12-hour 'Sailboat Press' for texture and complexity, a technique perfected over the last decade:
"For the whites, we like to press very gently in our horizontal Vaslin press from the 1980s. All the automatic systems & programs have been removed from the press, so it can only be controlled manually with an on/off switch. This gives us to total control of the detail in extraction- we taste the juices as they're pressed through the night, and this is all that guides us. We press in 20-30 minute intervals, sleeping in short bursts between like the watches organised through the night on a sailing boat."
Through the harvest, Chloelie & Matthieu alternate shifts between days in the vines and nights at the press, meaning one of them is always handling the two most important jobs: tasting and pressing, or having a keen eye on their picking.
The wines are detailed below the picture of the new arrivals, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
These are among our favourite expressions of a region and a variety we have worked with for the longest, one that will always surprise and delight us. Chloelie and Matthieu are certainly outliers in their approach, and all the better for it, a reminder of how alive Muscadet can be.
AVAILABLE NOW
2022 - Melon B MBXXII - Melon de Bourgogne.
2022 - Melon B MBXXII Key Keg - Melon de Bourgogne.
Hand harvested from the terroir of Maisdon sur Sèvre, in the hamlet of La Rebourgère over mica schist and gneiss. 2022 was a very sunny vintage, making a richer Melon de Bourgogne. Fermentation was slow and complicated, which required great patience.
After their 12-hour 'Sailboat Press' the wine was fermented in tank. With problems due to slow fermentation and at risk of becoming volatile, they added 20mg/l of SO2 before the end of its ferment. Over a year later- with the 22 Melon still safe in tank - when racking and bottling the new vintage, they passed the 2023 Melon lees back over the 2022 to refresh the fermentation and help it finish its sugars. Bottling and keg filling was done in the spring of 2025 with no further additions.
Such a phenomenal little wine, intense and fresh, with concentrated orchard fruit, energetic salinity and serious mineral zip. ** 2023 - Granite MBGXXIII - Melon de Bourgogne.
Harvested by hand, MBGXXIII is from the Loroux-Bottereau terroir, over a granite-vein soil. 2023 was an easy vintage. 12-hour 'Sail Boat Press' aged in tank, racked in the spring and then aged on fine lees for several more months. Bottled in November 2024 - unfined & unfiltered with no additions.
Big salty tropical fruit, pineapple, grapefruit, ripe pear, and a hint of honey. Wild and alive, wonderful natural Muscadet.
2023 - Vielle Vigne VVMBXXIII - Melon de Bourgogne.
Harvested by hand, VVMBXXIII is picked from old vines- 70 to 80 years old - on the terroir of Maisdon sur Sèvre, the hamlet of La Rebourgère over mica schist and gneiss. 12-hour 'sail boat press' - the wine is aged in tank, racked in the spring and then aged on fine lees for several more months. Also bottled November 2024 unfined & unfiltered with no additions.
Soft stone fruits and pithy citrus crushed in hand, layered and complex, with a long mineral line providing beautiful tension.
