Domaine Gilles Noblet Pouilly-Fuissé 2014

Gilles Noblet fashions incomparable Pouilly-Fuissé year in and year out. Born in the outstanding 2014 vintage, which yielded minute quantity but exceptional quality, the 2014 Domaine Gilles Noblet Pouilly-Fuissé comes across as remarkable in every respect. Given diminished yields and the corresponding superior concentration that characterize white Burgundies in 2014, the highly allocated 2014 Domaine Gilles Noblet Pouilly-Fuissé offers a big glass of Pouilly-Fuissé. Add Noblet’s strict selection process, and Domaine Gilles Noblet’s 2014 Pouilly-Fuissé offers everything one can ask for in a Pouilly-Fuissé. Typically bright and sunny in color, this Pouilly-Fuissé offers up its signature aromatic profile – an intriguing cornucopia of acacia blossoms, mountain apples, and soft mineral tones. What's more, the 2014 Gilles Noblet Pouilly-Fuissé exhibits Noblet’s elegant, seductive mid palate in a slightly larger format that normal. With every sip, this wine expands on the palate and caresses the senses with ripe fruit, pinpoint minerality, and a precision rarely found in other white wines, even other Pouilly-Fuissés. Furthermore, Gilles Noblet’s round, flavorful 2014 Pouilly-Fuissé possesses superb balance and structure to complement the wine’s seductive fruit and nuanced flavors. As a noble white Burgundy, we suggest giving Noblet’s Pouilly-Fuissé only a moderate chill (40° F), and then allowing it to evolve slowly in the glass. Salut!

Domaine Gilles Noblet’s outstanding 2014 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 provide tasty accompaniments to this wine. Blue Fin Crab cocktail offers another memorable pairing with Noblet’s elegant, 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 Leek Soup and Lobster Bisque provide tasty complements to a glass of Gilles Noblet’s Pouilly-Fuissé, too. Soft creamy cheeses such as Bûcheron, Edam, and Port Salut provide excellent, easy to prepare accompaniments to this wine as well. And for our money, Domaine Gilles Noblet’s Pouilly-Fuissé doubles as an apéritif extraordinaire and the ideal way to begin a special evening or the means to

Gilles Noblet continues to fashion some of the Mâcon’s finest and most enjoyable white wines from old vines in Pouilly-Fuissé, St. Véran, and neighboring Burgundy appellations. Noblet’s domaine, known as both Domaine Gilles Noblet and Domaine de la Collonge because of the location, is a small family owned and run property of just 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 age of the vines at Domaine Gilles Noblet averages more than forty years, with many vines much older than that. Noblet’s old vines and reduced yields result in white wines that are both generous and concentrated.

Noblet’s estate 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, Mâcon-Fuissé, and Pouilly-Loché from the other highly-prized appellations in the Mâcon crown.

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, soil, and entire terroir, 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 renowned.