Tasted in Fuissé with the family team of Sandrine Thibert-Needham with Christophe and Camille Thibert, 26 February 2024.
Domaine Thibert Père et Fils
20 rue Adrien Arcelin
71960 Fuissé
Tel: +33 3 85 27 02 66
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www.domaine-thibert.com
More reports with Domaine Thibert.
Christophe & Camille comparing recent vintages:
“2023 was not easy – due to mildew in some areas – we had some big storms too but, globally, when we finished I think not bad! 2022 was a bit easier, 2021 not all, in fact all were easy after 21! 2021 was hailed in some parts which had some consequences for volume also in 2022. We started with a bit of frost in 23 but it wasn’t really significant. In the 23 harvest, the grapes were already rather warm by 09h30.”
As every year, the domaine prefers to show their wines only after bottling and as commercialisation approaches. So this year it’s the 2020s:
Christophe & Camille on 2020:
“We were happy. We started harvesting quite early in our Bourgogne Blanc – a 17 August start which is a new record here – but the Bourgogne is direct-south-facing and we wanted to keep some acidity. I don’t regret the choice. We need about 15 days to harvest all of the domaine but fortunately we have parcels of different exposures and altitudes so not everything is ready at the same time. We started bottling at the end of June 22 for the 20s, finishing just before the 2022 harvest.”
The wines…
What a simply great vintage here – for now, the climate change is not interrupting the supply of great wines in the Mâconnais. I have enough wine at home but these wines were so good that I had to make an order. Having tasted so much Beaujolais Blanc in the preceding weeks, the very first Bourgogne brought me back to a wonderfully harmonious place !! 🙂
Hmm – this is ripe but with just enough citrus energy to be really inviting. A small spritz of CO2 – but this is direct and intense. Beautiful, beautiful wine – bravo Bourgogne!
2020 Mâcon-Prissé En Chailloux
Usually harvested in the second part of the harvest.
A little broader nose – faintly lime-fruited. Some gas again – but here is a bubblingly juicy wine with a really appealing core of finishing intensity with a vibration of delicious flavour.
We planted in the 80s and were are now starting to the best expression with a little more dry extract – still pruning quite short for now. Always harvested early in the harvest campaign…
A more vertical nose – fresh higher tones – deeper and riper at the base, almost a hint of quince. Again a little gas. Broader, more fluid, vibrantly flavoured and growing in intensity. That’s a great finish, even juicy. Almost a little mandarin finishing. Bravo!
2020 Mâcon-Fuissé, Bois de la Croix
Vines in the direction of Loché – ‘a character that’s a bit more Pouilly’. Vines planted just a couple of years before the previous wine.
Hmm – a beautiful nose – less large in scale but just as wide, modestly yellow-citrus zesty. A hint more gas – certainly a more incisive and direct wine. A stronger finishing minerality – I’d keep this slightly longer than the previous wines – the finishing flavour has more power – keep it a bit longer while drinking the other wines! Simply excellent wine!
2020 Mâcon-Verzé
Exposed west, harvested after the previous wine – soils that have more active limestone.
Wide, with energy, back to the more citrus with quince-accented style of fruit. Large, vibrant, less overt gas, lovely texture and width, slightly saline but intense with ripe agrume. Gorgeous wine!
2020 Saint-Véran
The assembly cuvée here – a hint of new oak elevage but balanced by older barrels and tank. 5 different parcels of different altitudes…
An inviting freshness of higher tones, a little smaller below. The gas returns. Across the palate a super growing intensity – properly fine citrus bitters in this finish. I like this a lot!!
1er crus here and in Vinzelles in 2024…
A more mineral but still slightly cushioned width – really wide. Larger scale, gorgeously structured – a gorgeously flavoured more chalky mineral wine – I find this great!
2020 Saint-Véran Champ Rond
Vines in Leynes. Barrel and tank elevage.
Another wine with an accent of ripe lime-citrus aroma. Mouth-filling a little gas contributes to lots of energy and lots of scale. Large and impressive in the mouth – this is for keeping – the first wine with some oak in the finish – but they are only selling the 2018 of this at the moment. Fading length- but what length!
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Heritage
An old vine cuvée. One more parcel in this in 2020 – but it’s still about 20 parcels that contribute.
There’s a small amount of oak cushioning to this nose yet still incisive in style – the oak is still under 20% – about half of which is new. Such scale and panoramic width here – vibrant – hyper impressive. Fabulous wine – but keep it 3+ years for the oak to fade. Very long finishing stony and with still some oak.
A small climat maybe only about three domaines that use the label. 80 and 50 year-old vines. Only just towards the end of selling the 2017s of this cuvée.
More airy and open – it’s at altitude but plain-south facing, slightly cushioned – it’s a great invitation. Large scale, wonderfully textured. Really great intensity – the oak present but slightly less visible than the Héritage. I think that’s a great wine.
Less width but more depth of aroma – fine citrus here more stony and quite concentrated at the depth – slowly adding more airy perfume. Direct, intense – so vibrant it’s almost electric – shimmering into a fine agrume finish – another that suggests a little mandarin fruit complexity. I love it!
1er in 2024… From the higher part of the vineyard – there’s less chance of frost here, historically, but they had in 2021…
Another wine with a faint extra accent of green citrus. Not the largest volume but a super combination of concentration, intensity and mouth-watering balance. Plenty of oak to accompany the flavour today. Extra wide finishing and so long – really a baby – it will be great!!
The first vintage with this name, it was Les Cras 1er before 2020 – but the parcel is the same.
Broad, chalky, vibrant – superb precision. A little gas, but such scale and like the nose – precision – chalky and hardly an accent from the oak. The finish not as powerful as the Longeays but hauntingly long – almost airy. Another great wine!
A fermage here but since the 1990s… Vines in the mid-slope with southern exposure. ‘A nicely draining area.’
Another nose that has an airy, ultra-attractive width. Direct, ultra mineral, accented with oak – a wine that’s rather direct and linear. That’s a wow wine – and back to the finishing power of the Longeays but more chalky.
A small parcel that used to be in the Vers Cras which it touches. Only about 700 bottles so nearly all barrel elevage but a little wine-globe too.
Less airy with a core of more concentration and a little more visible oak today. Hmm – so intense, so concentrated – then a length that’s got such clarity – ultra-concentrated but finely balanced – wait at least 5 years for this potentially great wine!
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Les Perrières
A tiny parcel here not much more than 0.1 ha that was once assembled into the Héritage.
A freshness of aroma – perfumed with a hint of barrel. Rounder, more generous but growing in intensity and a chalky minerality. The’s a wonderful wine…
Previous vintages proclaimed Menetrières but it’s a small corner of that vineyard that has been designated not to have the right to 1er cru – as you can imagine there was much discussion with the INAO despite using the name for many years… A hot place – it’s harvested early…
Some airy top notes, with hyper-perfumed citrus at the base – beautiful. Some gas again – but here are the best parts of the previous wines but additional is the fluidity with which everything is delivered – this is Grand Vin!