Tasting the Pouilly-Fuisse Wines

Benedict Vincent leads a tour of the vineyards in Pouilly-Fuisse

During my recent trip with family to the French region of Burgundy, we tasted wines in Gevrey-Chambertin (see my previous post) and in the small appellation of Pouilly-Fuisse.

As in the rest of Burgundy, the white grapes in Pouilly-Fuisse are chardonnay. I don't drink much chardonnay from California because I find the heavy oak virtually smothers the fruit. This grape is handled better in Burgundy, where they take lighter touch with oak.

We tasted seven wines at Vincent & Fils, where we were warmly greeted by Benedict Vincent, the daughter of the chateau's winemaker. She led us on a tour of the domaine's vineyards and its cellars. One of the wines we tasted was Vincent's Marie Antoinette cuvee, which New York Times writer Eric Asimov cited as "our No. 1 wine and best value" in a tasting of Pouilly-Fuisse held in 2008.

Most of the wines were delightful -- good fruit and nice acidity. This region tends to draw fewer tourists than regions to the north. Yet it has rolling hills and pleasant villages that charm those who venture into this southern edge of Burgundy.

Touring Vineyards in Burgundy

During my recent trip with family members to the Burgundian wine region of France, we had some pleasant tastings at a couple of renowned wineries -- one in the Cote de Nuit region of the northern Burgundy and the second in the southern appellation of Macon-Lugny.

In this blog post, I'll discuss the first of two vintners we visited. His name is Philippe LeClerc, and he has a reputation for being a superb, yet iconoclastic winemaker in the Cote de Nuit. Wine writer Cynthia Hurley calls him a "perfectionist." We visited his office and cellar in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, and we tasted five reds (100% pinot noir).

LeClerc doesn't filter any of his wines, so as one reaches the bottom of a bottle, there is very likely to be some deposit of sediment. Neither does he use the typical machine-presses to extract the juice from his grapes.

Yet the judgment that most significantly distinguishes LeClerc from his Gevrey-Chambertin and Cote de Nuit peers is that year in, year out, LeClerc tends to be one of the last winemakers to harvest the grapes from his vineyards.

We enjoyed his wines, although nearly all of them were being drunk at least a few years before they'll fully mature. The wine that was truly "ready" to drink was good, but far from stellar.

I enjoyed this degustation. The staff were welcoming and pleasant, not snooty.