The Beautiful Pouilly-Fuissés of Château des Rontets
4/7/18 -
Since a tasting many years ago at the natural wine fair "La Dive Bouteille," we have loved the Pouilly-Fuissés of Château des Rontets. Created in the 1700s, the estate has been in the Varambon family since the mid 1800s. In 1995 Claire Gazeau, François Varambon's great-grand-daughter, moved to Fuissé to take care of it with her husband Fabio Montrasi. Please join us this afternoon, Saturday April 7th, from 4 till 7pm, to taste these five beautiful wines with vigneron Fabio Montrasi. And next Monday, April 9th, join Fabio as he presides at the bar at Racines NY, 94 Chambers Street, beginning at 5:30! (Please note: The 2015 Varambon and 2014 Birbettes are in stock. The 2015 Pierrefolle, 2016 Varambon and 2016 Saint-Amour arrive April 30.)
Certified organic since 2005, the estate's 7.5 hectares include superb terroir on both limestone and granite soils, planted at high densities, and almost all by massale selection. The wines possess fabulous elegance and minerality that make them unique in the region, due to the estate's superb farming, precise natural vinifications and long aging sur-lie. The alcoholic fermentations are made only with natural yeasts, without any addition of sugar or acid and without enzymes, and the malolactic fermentations are never inhibited or artificially stopped. This practice can lead to long fermentations, often lasting several months, in which different stocks of yeast succeed one another and develop a series of specific aromas. This choice contributes to increase the aromatic complexity of the wines and favors the particular expression of the terroir.
The main vineyard site is "Les Rontets," situated at an altitude of 350 meters above sea level, on the top of the hill which closes the valley of Fuissé towards the south. This parcel produces the Pouilly-Fuissé cuvées Clos Varambon and Les Birbettes. The bedrock is composed of hard limestone from the Jurassic period and is from 1.30 to 1.60 meters deep. The tillable soil layer at its surface is very thin (20 centimeters at its deepest) and is composed of silt and silty clay, with very high presence of stones and silica.
The Pierrefolle climat, producing the Pouilly-Fuissé cuvée of the same name, is set at the top of the lieu-dit Vers Chânes. Although only 500 meters south of Rontets and practically at the same altitude, this plot has completely different characteristics. It is already on the south side of the geological fault separating the sedimentary soils from those issued from the continental base. Therefore in Pierrefolle the bedrock is granitic, the soil is much deeper and composed only of quite thick silts, often giving a fuller wine but with a distinctive bright acidity.
The estate also produces an unusual and delicious Saint-Amour from the Côte de Besset, one of the twelve climats of Saint-Amour. The two plots, reaching a total surface of half a hectare, are high up on a hill and exposed plain East. They consist of a primary volcanic-sedimentary sub-soil, quite rich with silica, and have a sandy-silty soil with a strong slope and high percentage of stones. This terroir produces a light bodied but remarkably elegant wine that is one of our favorite Beaujolais.
