Domaine de la Collonge Pouilly-Fuissé 2009

Year in and year out, Gilles Noblet fashions exceptional Pouilly-Fuissé. Unfortunately, so little of it is made and demand for it high in Europe. Consequently, only a paltry fraction of Noblet’s production of Pouilly-Fuissé makes it to our shores each year. However, this year we were able to secure just enough of this special Pouilly-Fuissé to offer a bottle to each of our members. Bright and sunny in color, Gilles Noblet’s 2009 Pouilly-Fuissé offers up an intriguing bouquet of acacia blossoms, mountain apples, and soft mineral tones. What's more, the 2009 Domaine de la Collonge Pouilly-Fuissé exhibits Noblet’s soft, seductive signature. With every sip, this wine expands on the palate and caresses the senses with ripe fruit, pinpoint flavors, and a precision rarely found in other white wines. Furthermore, Gilles Noblet’s flavorful Pouilly-Fuissé possesses charm, elegance, and that certain nuance of flavor the French charmingly refer to as “un certain je ne sais quoi.” As a noble white Burgundy, we suggest serving this wine moderately chilled (40°-45º F), and then allowing it a few minutes of aeration to evolve in the glass. Salut!

Domaine de la Collonge’s outstanding Pouilly-Fuissé serves as a perfect foil to hors d’oeuvres, mild cheeses, and seafood. Scallops, sautéed in a light cream sauce with pistachio nuts, and Coquille St. Jacques are two perennial favorite dishes with this wine. Blue Fin Crab cocktail offers another memorable pairing with this flavorful Pouilly-Fuissé. Flounder, grouper, or tilapia stuffed with crabmeat, makes a wonderful pairing, too. In addition, baked or grilled sole, sea bass, and mahi mahi offer other fine choices with Pouilly-Fuissé. And for those not beholden to the sea for sustenance, light creamy pastas and healthy garden salads topped with grilled chicken offer other excellent accompaniments to this beautiful Macon Chardonnay. Bucheron, Edam, Port Salut, and most other soft, cow’s milk cheeses provide excellent, easy to prepare accompaniments to Pouilly-Fuissé, too. And for those looking for a great way to begin an evening, Domaine de la Collonge’s special Pouilly-Fuissé doubles as an aperitif extraordinaire. Enjoy!

Gilles Noblet at Domaine de la Collonge continues to fashion some of the Macon’s finest and most enjoyable white wines from old vines in Pouilly-Fuissé and several other surrounding Burgundy appellations. Noblet’s Domaine de la Collonge is a small family owned and run domain of only 22 acres. Gilles is the fourth generation member of his family to make wine at this prized property, where sustainable agriculture and non-interventionist practices prevail. No artificial fertilizers or insecticides are employed, and only natural yeast is used in fermentation. Moreover, the average age of the vines for Domaine de la Collonge averages more than forty years, while many vines are considerably older. Noblet’s old vines and reduced yields result in white wines that are both generous and concentrated. The name Domaine de la Collonge derives from the sector or area (known as an aire) of the Fuissé commune that is called Collonge. Most of Gilles Noblet’s estate is spread along the hills of la Collonge, which yield on average only a little more than six thousand cases of Pouilly-Fuissé each year. However, Monsieur Noblet also fashions tiny quantities of exceptional St. Véran, Macon-Fuissé, and Pouilly-Loché – the other prized appellations in the Macon’s tiara.

Pouilly-Fuissé is the premier appellation of southern Burgundy as well as one of Burgundy’s finest white wines. Pouilly-Fuissé is ideally located in the heart of the Maconnais region and is renowned for its massif limestone bluffs and chalky alkaline soil, which provide the ideal terroir for Chardonnay. This appellation comprises just four villages that stretch out over a series of steep hills, just to the north of the ten greatest villages of Beaujolais. All the wine of this renowned commune is white, emanating exclusively from Chardonnay vines. In Pouilly-Fuissé, the tradition is to give fully ripened Chardonnay grapes a gentle press, so that the resulting wine expresses the ultimate quality of the grape and the soil, instead of sculpturing the wine with the extensive use of new oak. Consequently, most Pouilly-Fuissé wines still see little or no new oak barrel aging, so as not to obscure the delicacy, elegance, and subtle charm for which the wines of this prized commune are justly famous.