2016 Pouilly-Fuissé Pierrefolle

This estate lost 70% of its crop to the hail in 2016, making an average yield of just 18 hectoliters per hectare, and actually purchased some grapes for the first time to partly make up for the lost production. The harvest began on September 16 and was finished in just three and a half days owing to the tiny quantity, said Fabio Montrasi. He told me that the ‘16s are “a little like the ‘14s, with pHs on the high side, normal sugars, but healthy acidity levels around 4.5 grams per liter.” The young ‘16s from barrel showed impressive potential.

Vinous reader may recall that I did not provide tasting notes on Montrasi’s 2015s last year as they were still fermenting their sugars. In the end, they only finished in the spring of 2017 (they were bottled between April and July) and even then some residual sugar remained. “The wines were very high in alcohol and the yeasts were tired, so we had to inoculate to finish the fermentations,” Montrasi explained. “But the wines have turned out less extreme than I feared.”