This blog came from a radio script that aired January 5, 2019 on The Spirits of New Mexico. The revamped show now includes an on-air tasting of a wine in the $20-$40 range and a detailed background of the wine region and subregion from which the sampled wine originated.
The first wine I ever had, way back in my Navy days was a red Burgundy and these are still some of my favorite wines and Pinot Noir is still one of my favorite grapes, having tasted different interpretations from around the world. The white Burgundies were not far behind and my love of the Burgundy wine region only deepened.
The Burgundy (Bourgogne) wine region is quite broad in latitude; extending from the Chablis wine region in the north to Beaujolais in the south. While Beaujolais is geographically connected to the Burgundian region, it uses the Gamay grape rather than Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the two classic grapes of Burgundy. It also uses the carbonic maceration fermentation technique and only a few subregions of Beaujolais see any aging. Therefore like many other wine lovers I treat it as a separate wine region.
Readers can click here to see a Burgundy wine map; courtesy of Wine Folly, a highly recommended wine education website.
Below is an overview of Burgundy subregions, with a tighter focus on the Mâconnais subregion, which is where our selected wine came from.
Chablis:
Chablis is geographically separate from the rest of Burgundy and is the coolest wine area in Burgundy. The focus is on Chardonnay with leaner, mineral-driven wines. A previous show explored this area in detail.
Cote d’Or:
Cote d’Or means golden slopes which define the topography and the fact this is primo Chardonnay and Pinot Noir country. The term cote emphasizes the importance of slopes for providing maximum sun exposure for growing the best grapes.
Cote de Nuits is the northernmost part of the Cote d’Or with more emphasis on Pinot Noir, but Chardonnay-based wines are also highly-regarded.
Cote de Beaune is the southern part of the Cote d’Or with more focus on Chardonnay, but again making excellent Pinot-based wines.
Cote Chalonnaise:
The Chalonnaise has some well-regarded subregions such as Mercurey and Givry and the source of much of the sparkling wine of Burgundy called Crémant de Bourgogne. The Aligote white grape is also used here to make wine and a component of the crémant sparklers.
Mâconnais
This subregion is known for its Chardonnay-based wines. The lower portion has a number of highly-regarded communes and villages near the boundary with Beaujolais.
Pouilly-Fuissé is probably the most famous wine from the Maconnais and is the wine we tasted on-air.
Saint-Véran is the other commune known for quality Chardonnay, which often offers greater value than the better-known Pouilly- Fuissé.
Quality classifications
Burgundy, like Bordeaux defines premier and grand cru designations, but does not define first, second, third-growth terroir.
- Grand Cru designates Burgundy’s top vineyard plots or climats of which there are 33 in the Cote d’Or. Pinot Noir-based wines represent 60% of these plots.
- Premier Cru wines from Burgundy number 640. Many will list the village name and Premier Cru or 1er and optionally the climat name.
- Villages identify quality wines within the commune or village listed on the wine. There are 44 village wines including Chablis, Pommard and Pouilly-Fuisse.
Pouilly Fuissé
While Pouilly-Fuissé is the best-known part of Mâconnais, there are no Premier Cru vineyards within the AOC. The local growers perhaps more interested in growing grapes and making wine, never applied for this designation when the AOC was created on 11 September 1936. The area was known simply as “Pouilly”, but when the AOC laws were formed, it was split into three: Pouilly-Fuissé to the west and Pouilly-Loché and Pouilly-Vinzelles, east of Pouilly-Fuisse.
There are five distinct subregions within the Pouilly-Fuisse designation that represent the communes of Vergisson, Solutre, Pouilly, Fuissé and Chaintre, which are listed from north to south. There is an excellent video of each area’s terroir, wine characteristics and aerial shots of the vineyards as related by Jean-Pierre Renard.
Pouilly- Fuissé Terroir:
Lying on a foundation of fossiliferous limestone identical to those found further north in the Côte-d’Or, the Bajocien escarpments of the communes of Solutré and Vergisson presents a dramatic profile of limestone outcroppings thrust up above the slopes where the vines lay. This is the result of hard fossil corals which have resisted erosion. The vines are planted on the slopes and at the foot of the hills on clay-limestone soils of Jurassic origin mixed with scree from up-slope and, in one spot, schist, a metamorphic rock containing quartz and feldspar. The hillsides are split by steep-sided streams which give the slopes an easterly or south-easterly exposure. Altitudes: 200 to 300 meters.
What we are tasting: Domaine Luquet 2016 Pouilly-Fuisse Bois Seguin
Bois Seguin is the climat where the grapes are sourced. Domaine Luquet markets five different Pouilly-Fuisse wines. The Bois Seguin or Seguin Woods is ideally located on the western slope of the amphitheater of Fuissé, the altitude of this parcel varies from 355 m to 390 m. (Source: the Domaine Luquet website.)
Winemaker notes:
Aged about fifty years, these vines are protected from the winds by neighboring woods. The vine is exposed full east, where the sunshine is at its maximum. Harvesting is manual and winemaking is done in stainless steel vats to respect the minerality of the soil, rich in limestone. This wine will keep easily from 6 to 7 years.
Tasting this wine I recalled why I’d always loved these wines. The flavors are rich and complex but there is a delicacy and elegance to them as well that almost seems contradictory, but is not. Scents of blanched almonds, citrus and honey open into a broad palate with balanced acidity and the finish lingers long on the palate. I found myself continually sniffing the empty glass as the aromas were still there like a ghostly presence. I give this wine 92 points for those that like a numerical indicator of quality.
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