2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Le Clos 1er Cru

Proprietor Antoine Vincent greeted me at Château de Fuissé, located on the fringe of the titular village. These wines once had a reputation for being comparatively oaky. I broached the subject of stylistic changes with Vincent. He explained that as he was seeking more freshness, he began utilizing more stainless steel. We then moved on to the 2022 vintage.

“We had a lot of rain and some storms during the summer, which was good for the vines,” he tells me in his slightly medieval-looking tasting room. “But by the end of August, we had some stress as the temperature was very high. This stopped some of the maturity, so we postponed the harvest and began on September 5. The temperature stayed high, so we had to expedite the harvest that took place over 12 days. The yield was high, between 60-65hl/ha, though at that level, you don’t have dilution. You have to be careful when the temperature is 35°C. It was a late vintage in terms of the ripening, but there was diversity between climats in terms of sugar. The key point is lower acidity in 2023 because of the heat and potassium in the must. I did not adjust the acidity - but I reduced the time of élevage; for example, the entry-level wines were bottled in April and racked the Premier Crus into the tank at the same time, a month earlier than usual. I stopped the bâtonnage in April to maintain freshness as the wines already had a sense of fatness. I'll probably bottle a little earlier in November, too.”

These wines are definitely a lot more tensile than before. Les Combettes is not available this year due to the complexities of a métayage agreement, though both the Les Brulés and their monopole of Le Clos are well worth seeking out. The latter handles the 100% new oak with style.