Domaines Auvigue Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru 2021, Mâconnais, Burgundy

Domaines Auvigue Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru comes from one of the appellation’s officially classified Premier Cru climats, the first in the Mâconnais, recognised from the 2020 vintage. The family’s 1er Cru holdings lie around the villages of Fuissé, Solutré and Pouilly, on limestone, clay and flinty soils beneath the dramatic Roche de Solutré, many of them planted with old vines. The wine is 100% Chardonnay, fermented with wild yeasts, goes through full malolactic fermentation and is raised partly or wholly in French oak barrels, with only a modest share of new wood so that the site, not the oak, does the talking.

Expect a generous, layered white: ripe pear, yellow orchard fruit and citrus on the nose, with brioche, hazelnut and a subtle toasty note from the barrel. The palate is round and textured, balanced by a fresh mineral line, and finishes long and savoury.

Serve at 11–13°C with roast chicken or guinea fowl, pork in a creamy mushroom sauce, scallops, lobster or turbot with beurre blanc, or a mature Comté. Domaines Auvigue Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru is drinking well now and will reward keeping for 5–8 years.

Domaines Auvigue has been a name to know in Pouilly-Fuissé since 1946, when Francis Auvigue set up a small négoce to champion the appellation, recognised only ten years earlier. The family’s roots lie in Solutré, beneath the famous rock, and in the 1970s his grandsons Jean-Pierre and Michel Auvigue began buying their own vines in Pouilly-Fuissé. Sylvain Brenas-Auvigue, Francis’s great-grandson, took the reins in 2016 and, with the backing of Maison Jean Loron, bought the current domaine in Fuissé the following year. Today the family owns around eight hectares in Pouilly-Fuissé, ferments with wild yeasts, uses oak with a light hand and is moving its own vineyards progressively towards organic farming, planting trees among the vines to encourage biodiversity.