Chateau des Rontets Pouilly-Fuisse "Les Birbettes" 2020 dry white

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Château des Rontets Pouilly-Fuissé "Les Birbettes" 2020 dry white wine:

La Revue du Vin de France (Karine Valentin, May 2026) : 95/100. The nose remains very fresh and youthful, with a broad and deep palate, showcasing a lot of chewiness. A structured wine, uncompromising, vigorous, sprinkled with noble bitterness and asserting a strong personality.

Guide RVF des Meilleurs Vins de France 2023 (Nov. 2022) : Favorite and 94/100. Birbettes comes from old vines, one hectare spread over four plots, two of which were planted in the 1920s. Extracted, rich, and complex, it is a chardonnay of great purity and refinement, with an extraordinary aging potential. It offers remarkable mouthfeel and is suited for pairing with fish and white meats. Great vintages like this 2020 can easily age 10 to 15 years.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (W. Kelley, Oct. 2023) : 94/100. From the oldest vines growing in the clos, the 2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Birbettes is brilliant. It exhibits aromas of pear, dried flowers, buttery pastry, hazelnuts and bread dough, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered palate that's elegantly muscular, taut and concentrated, concluding with chalky grip.

Technical sheet written by the domaine:

"The ladies of the guest tables have adopted three words to describe aging: 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 wine Pouilly-Fuissé Les Birbettes, have all far exceeded sixty years. It consists of one hectare distributed over 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 ripening. The clusters are always composed of small berries, and their potential remains remarkably consistent from year to year. The wine produced expresses greater purity and verticality and is marked by a saline imprint, which we believe is 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 and becomes increasingly complex during its years of bottle aging. The great vintages of Birbettes can age 10 to 15 years or more.