Collins Corner #26 – one vine, 3 countrysides

My good friend Robert Collins is back on Winehog giving his view on a Burgundian topic. This time, Pouilly-Fuisse.

Recent news of a classification of Pouilly-Fuisse vineyards was met with great acclaim. My personal travels in this country and its wines span 45 years, so a moment of reflection was in order as I reviewed list of newly minted premiers crus.  Confirmation of my beliefs was next.  

I submit to you, the three countrysides of the vine chardonnay (Mâconnais, Chablis, Cote d’Or) are different entities.  Pouilly-Fuisse should not be considered part of “Bourgogne” or the Golden Cote any more than Chablis  should be.  The current concept of the appellations and divisions is a relic of the commercial considerations of centuries past, now deified into law that seems to self-validate through today’s monetary standards.  The old negociant system dominated the wine scene until very recently, due to proximity and the grapes.  Pouilly-Fuisse was held captive literally in word and deed. 

If we use old maps of the district, Larmat  [1936-1952] or go back to old hand painted scripts with marks of village-communities, the story is the same. the vineyard names inside Pouilly Fuisse are virtually unchanged from then to now.  Much is unchanged, from a long time before.  I frequently enter the area from Geneva or Lyon airports.  As soon as I cross the “border” the big river [Saone] near Macon, I have entered into the ancient country of the unofficial department of MATISCO. ..[ancient name of Macon] which should be dealt with differently.

 Macon as an appellation ended up being a catch all for vineyards as they stretched northward.  Somewhere as it winds north, it crosses a winding small river,[ Grosne], and morphs into Mercurey, Givry, and Rully.  At that point it is firmly Chalonnaise, part of Bourgogne.  Macon is everything in between, which leaves a clumsy appellation.

Consider for a moment the following scenario.  The French Revolution did not occur so violently in Macon.  The Church retained a larger influence in the area.  The abbey became the center.  Where would the capital of the appellation be?  North just a few kilometers is the answer. Cluny.  If this colossal monument to power and influence was still in existence, as it does in Chartres, distribution and reputation of the wine might look very different.  So where is the center of Pouilly Fuisse? It depends on how you look at it, quite literally.  On my first trip I turned off a bit early and was on an upper road south of the vineyards.  Suddenly I came upon a ridge that exposed a stunning view of Solutre mountain.  You felt privy to the beginnings of civilization. If a place ever looked like where a Grand cru would be, this does.   Duplicated.  It has a twin a short distance away, Vergisson.  

Appellation boundaries should support wines, not the other way around.   Since 1977, when I spent considerable time with Jean-Jacques Vincent, proprietor of Chateau Fuisse, I have been a keen admirer of the region.    My company imported the first wines from the rebel Jean-Marie Guffens to the US.   For my tastes, the wines are monumental in the sense of Charlemagne, Batard, or the Chablis Les Clos.  To use but one example, the 1991 ‘la Roche’, Guffens-Heynen, was spectacular in it’s prime.  Robert Parker equated it to a Batard Montrachet.   But with all this flash, it didn’t sell very well.  I more recently took the wine to a group of ‘Grand cru’ lovers and served it blind. They were wowed, they too looked for the “hook’ to hang it on, [Batard again got the nod] but it just didn’t quite fit…and when I unveiled the bottle, sad faces started to emerge.  “It wasn’t a Grand cru”. The point isn’t that they were wine snobs, I don’t think that true, but if the appellation on the label didn’t reinforce the perception, then it was less interesting to own.  [Would this wine be one of the new grand premier cru  vineyards?].  

  I submit to you, if we conducted a blind tasting with 3 Batard Montrachet and 3 Pouilly Fuisse,  you might very well be able to tell the difference and group them correctly. You also might not choose your favorite wine  from the Batard group.  

So, should there be a super’Grand’ vineyard in Pouilly… a BATARD FUISSE ?  I think not, because there is no single vineyard that is that distinctive.  My reasoning returns to Chateau Fuisse, which has  vineyards [Les Clos for one ] that are groomed as potential Grand Cru.  I have drank many bottles of this wine, it has a nice distinction, but the truest wines I have had from them are ‘Chateau Fuisse, VV, tete de cru” a blend from many vineyard sites.  This theory is further supported by the old Ferret wines.   The issue here is that the sum total of the components gives you the best, the essence.  It is beginning to sound like Bordeaux around here! Perhaps here lies a truth of the matter.. Pouilly Fuisse subscribes to a  classification resembling the Beaujolais ‘cru’ system, their historic method. 

The history of this area is linked to this holistic approach to wine making.  Are the soils and climate that much different?  Chardonnay is the great emancipator all over the world, but for a moment consider, that the red wines around here and just south, part of the same mountain system, Gamay is the red wine, not Pinot Noir.  Terroir dictates the distinction, reinforced by climate.  Chardonnay is different, allowing character to be expressed in Chablis, Montrachet, and Fuisse [and in Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara] and ends up being the most reliably satisfying grape globally.  Many talented vignerons have worked with a multitude of vines in fantastic locations….with exceptional results.  Don’t confine this exuberance by imparting to all a classification system that dictates a proscribed order.  An exclusionary order.   

The exotic tradition that spans centuries, is perhaps the result of the Benedictine order that was founded here.  An agricultural, as well as economic and spiritual whole.  The brothers are equal in the eyes of the church.  Further north, it is old Kings, power, exclusivity and ritual.  Appellations in the Cote d’Or cling to a narrow band of geologic differences. Fuisse spreads like lava from the pre-historic pinnacles. Enjoy a different ambiance. The author Gaston Roupnel best captures the essence in his ‘History of the countryside [campagne] of France’.

 I rejoice to see some long deserved recognition for the wine, but don’t mask the essence for next weeks paycheck.  For a short period of time, there are no official Grand cru, accompanied by ever spiraling prices.  What are the ‘best’ wines? Yours to discover, before it closes by  ‘market influences’.  If you want to narrow the list a bit, to my tastes Chaintre is less of a Pouilly than it is its own commune [more akin to ‘Loche’, ‘Charnay’ or ‘Vinzelles’] than the two mountains and the rolling Fuisse plain. My list of producers is dated, there are new revolutionists engaged in discovery.You can find good examples from  the Cote d’Or wineries as a start.  The last half dozen vintages have been kind to Pouilly Fuisse, what better time than now? 

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Stay safe.  Keep your spirits up. Pandemics will pass, and life will revive.  Your friend in wine,  Bob