When France’s AOC laws were written back in the 1920s and ‘30s, it wasn’t just to codify the concept of terroir: it was to create ‘brands’ that inspired consumer confidence. In Europe, they were conditioned to think of the place as the brand, and Americans got on board.
We either stole names for our own wines (“Hearty Burgundy”) or embraced certain European regions with gusto (Chianti; Champagne) to show off our growing wine sophistication. Surely the best example of this is Pouilly-Fuissé, which, once we mastered the pronunciation (pwee-fwee-SAY), became as emblematic of the 1970s as Hamburger Helper or the Ford Pinto. But the ‘70s were a long time ago; it’s hard to believe that this old image—as the innocuous white your Mom used to order at the fern bar—persists. Pouilly-Fuissé is the greatest white-wine zone in the Mâcon region of Burgundy, and this wine, an impeccably crafted, powerfully structured Chardonnay from Château des Rontets, is the furthest thing from innocuous. From a jewel-box vineyard named “Les Birbettes” planted nearly a century ago, this 2014 easily competes with more ‘prestigious’ (and expensive) Premier and Grand Cru whites from the Côte de Beaune. I dare you blind taste your Burgundy collecting friends on this wine and see them call serious $$ Grand Cru. This is the ‘new’ Pouilly-Fuissé; I go out of my way to find Les Birbettes every vintage, and I’m excited to share it with you now. This wine is the real deal.
Château des Rontets is a reference-point producer in the Mâcon. Husband/wife team Claire Gazeau and Fabio Montrasi manage a beautifully manicured property that has been in Claire’s family since 1850. Their vineyards are perched at the crest of a hill overlooking the village of Fuisse, at an altitude of 350 meters, making them some of the highest-elevation sites in the AOC. The majority of their vineyards, along with their home and cellar, are bounded by a stone wall, or clos. Les Birbettes is the oldest of their named (lieu-dit) vineyards, planted first in the 1920s and augmented after WWII. Its soils consist of an extremely thin layer of clay and silt over a rock-hard limestone base, and while the hill-cresting vines are positioned to take in all-day sun, day/night temperature variations are extreme at this higher altitude—resulting in a longer growing season. The level of intensity Les Birbettes is able to achieve, without a corresponding loss of acidity, is what makes it special. Because the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation has no ranking system for its vineyards, Les Birbettes doesn’t have a Premier or Grand Cru moniker to distinguish it. But it should. In a blind tasting this would surely be pegged as something serious from a little further north, in Beaune: Bâtard-Montrachet, maybe (yes, I said it), or Premier Cru Chassagne.
Instead, we get something just as good for half the price. Les Birbettes has power and concentration, but also refinement and breed. Crystalline minerality, firm structure and old-vine depth are all on display here. The wine is fermented and aged in barrels (only 10% to 15% of which are new), and spends about 20 months on its fine lees. Only about 5,000 bottles are produced annually, which I why I have to hunt it down and hoard it; you won’t see this wine anywhere other than a handful of sharp restaurant wine lists.
The 2014 Les Birbettes displays a concentrated straw-yellow center moving to slight gold and green reflections on the rim. Once the wine breathes some air, the aromatics are stunning. Mineral-driven notes of white peach skin, acacia flowers, dried lemon, honeysuckle, seashells and chalk are presented with intense energy. The palate is simultaneously rich, tense, and mineral, exquisitely complex and long. Flavors of bosc pear, white peach, lime blossoms and limestone drive a finish that seems to go on for minutes. In a word, it’s serious; for the price, it’s impossible to beat, and I can envision it aging gracefully for 10 to 15 years. If you’re enjoying it now, you may detect a note of sulfur when the wine is first opened, but it blows off fairly quickly; decant it for about a half hour before serving at around 55-60 degrees in a large Burgundy stem. If this wine is too cold, the aromatics will be tamped down and the wine’s acidity/minerality will dominate.
This expansive, even wintry, Chardonnay would be perfect with roast chicken and all manner of richer fish dishes, but its leesy, creamy texture got me thinking of an Italian-style milk-roasted pork loin. This combo takes ‘Sunday dinner’ to a new level. And if you still have that old image of Pouilly-Fuissé in your head, prepare to forget it for good. It’s long past the time!
