Pouilly-Fuissé

Burgundy is the most terroir-driven of all winemaking regions, hundreds of small patches of land divided up into even smaller plots inherited over the generations by individual farmers. There are only four grapes grown in the region, though for the most part quality wine is made with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (the other two grapes are Aligoté and Gamay). Although the two grapes are important to the taste of the wine, it's the many different soils, the location and aspect of the vineyard, the weather, and, of course, the influence of the winemaker that lend so much to the wine's eventual character.

Some of the most famous names in the world of wine lie in this land. The Côte d'Or - literally golden slopes, though the name may originally have been an abbreviation of Côte d'Orient, meaning east-facing slopes - stretches from Dijon, taking in the expensive red wines of Marsannay, Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, and Nuits-St-Georges, down to Beaune, more famous for its whites from Corton, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, and Montrachet.

Another famous name is further south, in the Mâconnais area where the limestone soils which give Burgundy so much of its identity turn into the granite soils of Beaujolais. These soils end in the spectacular crags of Vergisson and Solutré, two of the four villages that form the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation. The soils here are the oldest of Burgundy, with a 100 million years' difference in age between the oldest and the youngest rocks.

the communes

From north to south, the first of the communes is Vergisson, which is dominated by a large crag. The west of the commune has east-facing slopes on granite soils, producing expressive wines, while the east of the village, with its west-facing slopes on rocky, limestone soils, is cooled by northern winds, producing more mineral and floral wines.

Next is Solutré-Pouilly. Solutré is dominated by the other of the two crags; to the back of this large rock, the wines are aromatic and complex. Pouilly is on limestone soils, producing complex, rich, ageworthy wines.

In Fuissé, the vineyards looking down on the village create rich, powerful wines, while those at the bottom of the village, on volcanic soil, are round, supple, fruity, and easy to drink.

The most southerly commune is Chaintré, on east-facing limestone slopes, whose wines are fruity and fresh with mineral qualities.

Solutré's rock

 

the appellation

The four communes got together in 1929 to create a single village, which was made into an appellation in 1936. Until the nineteeth century, Gamay was the dominant grape, but Chardonnay took over, particularly after phylloxera, and it is now the only grape permitted in the appellation. Unlike the Côte d'Or, the concept of Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards, which define each appellation's best sites, does not exist in Pouilly-Fuissé. This is changing, however, and the appellation's authorities are in the process of applying for Premier Cru status for several of its vineyards - or climats, meaning sites - including the vineyards behind the five wines I tasted below.

the wines

At the invitation of the Bourgogne Wine Board and @AnnetteHamani, I tasted five wines from Pouilly-Fuissé. These displayed the rich variety of styles produced in the village, due both to the divergent soils and production methods. Pouilly-Fuissé is known for its bigger style of wines; although these were still all quite full-bodied, there was a great deal of finesse and delicacy to them. Also surprising was the age of the vines, ranging from 40 to 90 years.

Domaine Pascale et Catherine Rollet, Clos de la Chapelle 2012

From a vineyard on marl, limestone, and clay soils in the centre of Pouilly, this was by far the oakiest, as well as the youngest, of the wines I tasted - fourteen months in 50% new oak and 50% two-year-old oak. From 90-year-old vines giving the wine extra concentration, there were strong earthy, smoky, and vanilla aromas to the nose, with white pepper and cinnamon. The oak did overpower the other aromas of apricot and hazelnut. A little obvious, but a wine with lots of appealing flavours wrapped in a smoky earthiness.

Domaine Dominique Cornin, Les Chevrières 2011

This wine was completely different, as it was only aged in old oak. The vineyard is also from a different part of the appellation, Chaintré, where the grapes are earlier ripening due to the south-facing slopes and protection from the northern winds. With the absence of new oak, the pear and apricot aromas were more apparent, with an almond nuttiness showing the wine's extra year of age. A delicate, balanced, yet still full-bodied wine.

Domaine Thibert Père & Fils, Les Vignes Blanches 2010

From the ampitheatre of vines that overlook the village of Fuissé, the name of the vineyard refers to its white, pebbled, limestone soil. A forward wine, with 20% new oak and 20 months of ageing (the final 9 months in stainless steel), with rich, creamy flavours of vanilla, quince, and banana. Likewise on the mouth, making the wine like a creamy mushroom sauce. This wine, showing well four years after the vintage, indicated that the full style of Pouilly-Fuissé would best be appreciated with rich creamy chicken or veal dishes.

Domaine Denis Bouchacourt, En Sevry 2010

Perhaps my favourite of the five wines, due to its mature aromas of orange peel and its mellow, delicate, yet complex feel. Ageing more quickly than the other wines - it hadn't been aged in oak at all - this was an indication of what Pouilly-Fuissé tastes like as it grows old. From near Solutré's rock, where the vines are protected from the cool air from the north and exposed to lots of sun, this wine felt the purest, most balanced expression of the appellation's soils, floral with a long nutmeg finish.

Château de Beauregard, La Maréchaude 2010

In the village of Vergisson between the two unavoidable crags, this wine comes from a vineyard with poor, stony soil. The relatively small amount of new oak (25%) still overpowers the stony, mineral flavours, with a rich, full, creamy texture of vanilla, smoke, and banana. An intense wine, but not the subtlest.

What surprised me most about tasting these five wines is that the two with the least amount of oak used in the maturation process were the most interesting, expressive, and complex. The use of old oak in the second wine and the complete absence of oak in the fourth allowed the character of the vineyard and the attitude of the winemaker to come through more clearly but also more subtly - which is what the wines of Burgundy should be about. The vineyards of Pouilly-Fuissé, protected from the cooler airs of the north and exposed to the warmer sunshine of the south, seem quite capable of producing expressive, full wines without too much intervention from the winemaker. If the producers of Pouilly-Fuissé wish their wines to be compared to those of the Côte d'Or, they should allow those wines to express most completely the character of the land they come from.