Tasted at the Château Fuissé with Philip Tuinder, 30 October 2023.
Domaine Château de Fuissé
71960 Fuissé
Tel: +33 3 85 35 61 44
www.chateau-fuisse.fr/
Domaine’s Instagram
My first visit to this 15th-16th century château and what a lovely place!
The current family have been here since 1862 and it is Antione Vincent the 5th generation – here since 2003 – who is currently responsible for the domaine.
This is a domaine with over 100 parcels of Pouilly-Fuissé amounting to 25 hectares, then there’s 8 hectares in St.Véran and 3 more in Mâcon-villages. But we are not finished, there’s also 3 hectares of vines in Juliénas and half a hectare of Bourgogne Blanc.
In addition to this, almost, 40 hectares there’s also a négoce label – Famille Vincent – sold in the US market.
Their export manager, Philippe Tuinder explains:
“We can start with a little red. We’re very happy with the harvest this 2023 year – the weather, the quality and the quantity. It will allow us the have a buffer of stock after the very small 21 vintage. 22 wasn’t a big vintage – it just seemed like one after 21 – we had 40-45 hl/ha. We can have 50-80 harvesters depending on how fast we need to go as we follow the maturity.”
The wines…
An interesting visit! Plenty of enjoyable wines – in a style that’s perhaps more 1990s than many of the best producers today – yet – their Clos – what a beautiful piece of land. This terroir marks itself out so wonderfully well with a special mineral ‘cut’ that I feel that I could easily pick it out blind from their other Pouillys. It’s a very great terroir!
2021 Juliénas
Historically domaine Conseillaire – on the hill looking to Chénas – they use a grill to keep the cap from drying in the fermentation tank.
A little herbed and saline – gentian if not overt pyrazine. Yes wide, some pyrazine but texturally fine and quite juicy in flavour – the finish vibrant and energetic and quite long too – tastily long!
2020 Juliénas
More colour. Less forward but cleaner and more fruit definition. Depth, concentration – and plenty of structure. There’s a tannin that frames the flavours – slightly drying – but with almost no grain. Powerful and keep 2 years before popping your first corks.
2019 Juliénas
Very pretty red fruit – just a faint suggestion of development here too. Cushioned, very red fruit – still plenty of tannin – again the flavours already with a little development – the structure needs to catch up with that development though as the fruit is very ready but not yet the structure as there are still plenty of finishing bitters in this, once more, powerful finish.
2022 – the first two are bottled since July. They use Nomarcorc for a few wines – a little DIAM ‘to get an opinion’ – there’s also cork used here – I’d like to see them to fully embrace one solution to get the best out of that…:
2022 Mâcon-Villages
2 ha at altitude the other hectare near Prissé
Attractive salt’n’pepper oak on the nose – the citrus fruit more hidden today. A hint of CO2, but settling over the palate in a mouth-watering, almost mineral way. Very easy wine to drink with the faintest suggestion of citrus bitters in the finish – holding subtly but well.
2022 St.Véran
3 parcels – 2 ha on the SE face and 4 towards Davayé, and 2 ha on limestone
Fruit forward wine wine with a nice clarity – this is a pretty invitation. Again a prickle of CO2 – but a wine that’s more mouth-filling and seemingly more mineral too – certainly a good shape and quite silky. That’s a lovely finish – of clarity and a hint of salinity too!
Now 3 tank samples:
2022 Pouilly-Fuissé Tête de Cuvée
This cuvée name before 2016 was Tête de Cru – ‘changed to avoid confusion with forthcoming 1er crus – but if you want one wine from Château Fuissé – then this is the standard bearer – both for Pouilly and the domaine – it’s about 60% of the domaine’s production- this the final blend for bottling in December.’
Open and fresh – the oak is invisible – a little green and yellow citrus complexity. Extra richness and a fine, textural, width – silky. I’d like a bit more energy but this is sinuous and delicious – with quite some elegance in the finish.
2022 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Les Brulées
The smallest of the 1er crus – on marne and cay – directly south-facing
A pretty and fine yellow citrus – ripe but not fat – just a little shy today. Still some richness but this is slightly more direct and fluid in style. The mouth-watering flavour and minerality forming a lovely balancing freshness. There’s more power to this finish – a lovely wine.
2022 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Le Clos
2.7 ha monopole of the domaine. 30m of height difference in their vines in three layers of different soil type and the oldest vines from 1929.
A shy nose but open and with fine clarity – there’s more minerality hinted at here – subtly floral perfumed too. By far the most mouth-filling but fluid wine so far. Mouth-watering and tasty – silky wine with an obvious middle concentration – the vibrantly, almost extravagantly finishing with width and sustained complexity. Worth waiting 2-3 years – it’s simply excellent.
2021 Pouilly-Fuissé Tête de Cuvée
A narrower nose – but still a core of quite ripe fruit. Broader, fresher, juicy finishing wine. Intense and almost sour-bitters but so moreish finishing too – it makes you want to take another sip.
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Tête de Cuvée
More depth here – a hint of old oak complexity at the base. This is very fresh, mobile wine with very good energy – broader and seemingly more powerful than the 21 with more overt finishing bittles – a wine whose structure I’d wait for despite some impression of development. Again impressively long
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Les Combettes
JUst 3 borrels – only old barrel elevage. There was none of this in 21 due to the frost and hail
Some sweetness and and a little development again. This has ripe fruit but a very mineral fluidity – juicy, saline and zesty finishing. A little structure to this shape, still, too… Keep 2 years…
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Brulées
There’s just 0.8 ha of this 1er and the domaine owns 85%
More open and more floral too – the depth showing oak elevage with being overtly oaky. Plenty of richness but still with balance. And I like the clarity of this finish – I’d wait a couple of years again but in this case to let the oak fade…
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Le Clos
A more vertical nose – narrower but deeper too. Like the previous Clos this is much more mouth-filling and fluid. The oak flavour more visible once more. Clearly a very classy terroir!
“The history of the domaine was making the best assembly of all their parcels to represent PF, for instance the oldest vines of Le Clos went into their old-vine PF cuvée – so the 1ers brought a challenge – what to do – hence that’s the approach today”
2018 Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Le Clos
Hmm- that’s a panoramic nose – still suggesting some oak but what a lovely complexity of developing flavour. Beautiful, mouth-filling, shape – like all the other Clos tasted but here with a sheen of more developed flavour. I have to say that this is very lovely – and more developed than I would expect from my own cellar – but in a super direction. Lovely! Less density in the finish than other ‘Clos’ – but that’s probably the rendement of the vintage and it certainly doesn’t hold this wine back…
Fhe first vintage with all the vines of the Clos assembled.
Hmm – less open but still of fine complex width – less developed than the 18 actually – very lovely! Hmm, crystalline, growing almost juicy in the middle – vibrant and with very fine clarity of flavour. Actually this is quite young and certainly a wine of direct flavour. It could be a great one and if you have a good cork – like this one – it will be equally, perhaps more, great in another 10 years!! Fishing rather panoramic.