The appellation was recognised on 14 November 1936, the year before the wider Muscadet appellation, after growers around La Haie-Fouassière had won the right to their own name in court in 1925. The name Muscadet first appears in 1635, in a lease kept at Gorges. The Melon grape took hold from the sixteenth century, pushed by the merchants of Nantes.

The vines grow on ancient rocks: mica schist and gneiss in the north around the Goulaine marshes, gabbro in the east, orthogneiss in the west and coarse granite around Clisson in the south. These give thin, stony, free-draining soils. The climate is oceanic, with mild winters and summers kept cool by sea breezes.

The wine stays on its fine lees, the yeast left after fermentation, until at least 1 March after the harvest. Labelled sur lie, it is bottled straight off those lees before the second summer after the harvest, keeping its freshness and sometimes a slight prickle. Muscadet usually ages in underground vats, most often concrete lined with glass or stoneware tiles.

Since 2011, wines from delimited sites may add the name of a cru communal. Clisson, Gorges and Le Pallet came first, and Château-Thébaud, Goulaine, Monnières-Saint-Fiacre and Mouzillon-Tillières followed in 2019. Vallet and La Haie-Fouassière were close to recognition in 2026. The crus stay on their lees until at least October of the second year after the harvest, and can age well.

Domaine de l'Écu, at Le Landreau, has farmed organically since 1972 and biodynamically since 1998, and ages much of its range in clay amphorae.

The wines above are the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine wines in the cellar. See also Anjou upstream, where Chenin Blanc takes over, Sancerre for Sauvignon Blanc further up the river, or the full range of Loire Valley wines.