Domaine de la Collonge Pouilly-Fuissé 2011

Year in and year out, Gilles Noblet fashions exceptional Pouilly-Fuissé. And happily we are among the fortunate few able to enjoy Noblet’s 2011 Domaine de la Collonge Pouilly-Fuissé. With a small domaine, strict selection process, and high demand in Europe for this wine, only a paltry fraction of Noblet’s production of Pouilly-Fuissé makes it to our shores each year. However, we were once again able to secure just enough of Domaine de la Collonge’s exceptional 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé to offer a bottle to each of our members. Typically bright and sunny in color, Gilles Noblet’s 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé offers up its signature aromatic profile – an intriguing bouquet of acacia blossoms, mountain apples, and soft mineral tones. What's more, the 2011 Domaine de la Collonge Pouilly-Fuissé exhibits Noblet’s elegant, seductive mid palate. 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, even other Pouilly-Fuissés. Furthermore, Gilles Noblet’s flavorful 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé possesses superb balance and structure to complement the wine’s seductive fruit and nuanced flavors. As noble white Burgundy, we suggest giving this wine a moderate chill (40°-45º F), and then allowing it to evolve slowly in the glass. Salut!

Domaine de la Collonge’s outstanding 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé serves as a perfect foil to seafood, poultry, soups, and salads. Scallops, sautéed in a light cream sauce with pistachio nuts; Coquille St. Jacques; and steamed Alaskan king crab legs dipped in drawn butter all get a special nod from us to accompany this wine. Blue Fin Crab cocktail offers another memorable pairing with this flavorful Pouilly-Fuissé. Flounder, grouper, or halibut stuffed with crabmeat, makes a wonderful pairing, too. In addition, baked or grilled sole, grouper, and sea bass offer other fine choices with this 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 Noblet’s beautiful Pouilly-Fuissé. Potato Leak Soup and Lobster Bisque provide tasty accompaniments to a glass of Gilles Noblet’s Pouilly- Fuissé, too. Soft creamy cheeses such as Bucheron, Edam, and Port Salut provide excellent, easy to prepare accompaniments to this wine as well. And for our money Domaine de la Collonge’s Pouilly-Fuissé doubles as an apéritif extraordinaire and the perfect way to begin a special evening, regardless of what’s on the menu. Enjoy!

Gilles Noblet at Domaine de la Collonge continues to fashion some of the Mâcon’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 Mâcon’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 Mâconnais 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.