Château des Rontets Pouilly-Fuissé "Les Birbettes" 2018 dry white

PRESENTATION OF CHÂTEAU DES RONTETS
+ ALL ITS OTHER WINES IN STOCK

 

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Château des Rontets Pouilly-Fuissé "Les Birbettes" dry white 2018

RVF Guide to the Best Wines of France 2021 (nov.2020) : 93/100. Still showing some oak, a ripe and fleshy chardonnay that will gain amplitude with time. Elegant with beautiful minerality and freshness, it finishes on vibrant chalk and good persistence. Giving it some time will be beneficial. 

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (William Kelley, August 2021) : 93/100. Aromas of buttered yellow orchard fruit, vanilla pod and almond paste preface the 2018 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Birbettes, a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and lively wine that's elegant and charming, concluding with a saline finish. It's finer-boned and more open-knit than the muscular, concentrated 2019 Clos Varambon. This cuvée now sees no new oak, maturing in one- to six-year-old barrels before spending several months in tank on the lees before bottling. Drink date 2021-2033.

As I've written before, Fabrio Montrasi and Claire Gazeau farm the Château des Rontets's six hectares of vines organically. Most are located within a walled "clos" that overlooks the village of Fuissé, with clay-limestone soils, but their small Pierrefolle vineyard is planted on a rare outcropping of granite. Harvest is by hand, followed by gentle pressing and vinification in foudres and used barrels. Textural, expressive and beautifully differentiated by their respective terroirs, these are splendid wines from a domaine that ranks among the best in Mâconnais, and they come warmly recommended. These new releases remain attractively balanced despite two successive warm vintages, and I look forward to seeing the rest of their 2019s in bottle next year (long élevage is the order of the day here).

Technical sheet written by the domaine:

"The ladies of the guest tables have adopted three words to describe old age: at fifty-five, it's a birbon; at sixty, it's a birbe; past this fatal deadline, it's a birbette." (Léo Lespès, 1815-1875).

The vineyard : Indeed, the very old vines of the Clos, which are the source of the cuvée of Pouilly-Fuissé Les Birbettes, have all well surpassed sixty years. It consists of one hectare divided into four plots: two of them were planted in the 1920s, just after the phylloxera epidemic, and the other two at the end of the Second World War, in 1945. The main characteristic of the old vines is their ability to implement a kind of "regulatory system" that limits the influence of climatic conditions and allows for consistent growth during the growing season. The vine can thus achieve the best grape ripeness. The clusters are always composed of small berries, and their potential remains remarkably consistent from year to year. The wine produced expresses more purity and verticality and is marked by a saline imprint, which is, in our opinion, the clearest manifestation of minerality.

The vinification: It is done in barrels of 228 and 400 liters, which are between one and six years old. The wine is racked before the next harvest and blended for an additional ten months of aging on fine lees in older barrels. A second racking and the final blending prepare for bottling, which is done without filtration or fining.

The wine: It is a cuvée that begins to express itself fully from the third year, becoming increasingly complex during its years of bottle aging. The fine vintages of Les Birbettes can age for 10 to 15 years or more.