Pouilly-Fuissé les Clos 2015 Chateau de Fuissé – Elitistreview at 20

At the Elitistreview 20^th anniversary lunch, the third wine was also a white Burgundy, but not from the Côte d’Or.

Pouilly-Fuissé is practically the only Burgundy I buy – 2015 Chateau de Fuissé (Famile Vincent) Les Clos showed why it is worth buying. This is a big change from when I was first buying wine as a teenager when Pouilly-Fuissé was largely like battery acid. Thank you, climate change!

In my excoriation of 2021 Burgundy (in which I said, I would not buy Côte d’Or village Burgundy even “if I had won a double-rollover-scum-tax Euromillions jackpot”), the only wines I recommend buying were Sophie Cinier’s Pouilly-Fuissés.

Her best wines, and those of other people growing the best vineyard, have had the undoubted quality of them recognised with the introduction of Pouilly-Fuissé 1er crus in the 2020 vintage. This is a well-deserved change.

At previous en primeur tastings, Daniel Barraud’s wines have been praised, and I still recommend them highly – he is the producer I buy most regularly (get them at Ripley Wines, the magnums are irresistible!).

Unfortunately, Chateau de Fuissé Vieilles Vignes, the first Pouilly-Fuissé I reported on has been noticed by the greater wine world, who demanded to know why the hell they were not told and promptly started greedily grabbing it, and the price has gone crazy. However, if you find an affordable bottle, especially with some age, snap it up!

I highly recommend this wine, even though it is one of the more expensive Pouilly-Fuissés. More affordable producers include Bret Brothers (whose wines do not have it, so no nominative determinism here), Cinier and my highest recommendation goes to Daniel Barraud’s wines. As this wine amply demonstrates, there is no rush to drink these under-rated white Burgundies.

Pouilly-Fuissé Les Clos 2015, Chateau de Fuissé/Famille Vincent

What a nose! Big, round and ripe. Very bold. Not fat, though, there is a nutty minerality to it that gives it enough of an edge to keep it vigorous.

You could not ask for a more lovely maturity on the nose than this classy wine displays. It has nuts, lemony fruit, creamy minerality, and a hint of Côte d’Or baby vomit. Yummy, yummy. One sniff of this and one cannot deny that the best Pouilly-Fuissés are properly serious wines.

A taste… Delight! Weight and power but full of energy and life. Quite fresh, even. Really complex, too, with a finish that persists for a long time.

This is a set of pink cords with ducks embroidered on them as far as white Burgundy goes. Stylish, sophisticated, classy, hyper-cool, and, if those trousers are mine, nice and long. Brilliant.

If I were being hyper critical, and this is being so picky of me you ought to ignore this paragraph, and the next paragraph shows why, there is maybe a very slight suggestion of dilution on the finish. But sweaty tests to that! It is so good that I will always be smugly happy to drink this.

I loved this so much I tasked The Editor with getting a bottle for us to share one summery afternoon. Sadly (for you all) he managed to get the last bottle on sale. It was less than the price of new release Côte d’Or village wine, and thrashes the arse of such wines in terms of complexity, deliciousness, aesthetic value and being in an utterly wonderful stage of maturity so enabling maximum pleasure when drinking.

Really good, thank you Ricard for scoring this bottle for us all to enjoy!