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Domaine J.A. Ferret

Director/winemaker Audrey Braccini told me that the vines were resilient in 2016 in spite of all the weather challenges. The April hailstorm came from the west and curled off to the north and then back to the west, she said, and parts of Fuissé were untouched. “We were lucky to have had the hail so early,” she told me, and the estate had a small second set of buds. “And since March was cold we did not have a lot of problems with mildew.” She went on: “There was rain on August 18, which was positive for the grapes, then no precipitation until September 19, when we had about 20 millimeters of rain.”

The estate started harvesting on September 23, with grape sugars typically ranging from 13.1% to 13.8% alcohol—even as high as 14%. Braccini did no chaptalization or acidification but blocked part of the malolactic fermentations, as is her normal practice—as well as the practice at Maison Louis Jadot, which bought the historic Domaine Ferret estate in 2008. I tasted the ‘16s from tanks, where they had been moved in June (for the first two wines) and August.

Braccini described 2015 as “my favorite vintage since I arrived here; it was possible catch a great quality, and the wines will be beautiful to keep.”[She described her effort to capture a vintage’s fruit at exactly the right moment as “the most beautiful fight.”] “The fruit in the vineyards had great density but it was important to retain the naked wine,” she added. But whereas in 2015 she wanted to avoid very ripe yellow fruits, in 2016 she was looking for ripeness. “Two thousand sixteen is a more classical year in terms of its aromas but we had to wait longer to capture the aromas of mature Chardonnay.” She recommends drinking the ‘16s first, then the ‘14s, and then the ‘15s, which she believes have the combination of density and acidity for a long life in bottle.

From Mâconnais 2016 and 2015: Dealing with the Elements (Nov 2017) by Stephen Tanzer

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2016 Pouilly-Fuissé

Color: White

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