2012 Pouilly Fuisse Les Reisses

The 2012 Pouilly Fuissé Les Reisses Vieilles Vignes has a comparatively austere bouquet, but one with great transparency, as if you can peer through rock. The palate is harmonious with touches of hazelnut and spice on the entry, a fine line of acidity and a long but tender white-pepper-tinged finish. This has enormous potential - real class and sophistication even at this early stage.||On my second visit to this outstanding domaine in the village of Fuissé, located just a stone’s throw from Chateau Fuissé, I had the pleasure of meeting sons Nicolas and Audouin, along with père Jean-Jacques. Like last year, we tasted in their rather cramped barrel cellar, just in front of one of their foudres. Speaking to Jean-Jacques about his philosophy toward wine, I was reminded of tasting chez Lucien le Moine in Burgundy: the concept of long alcoholic fermentations (which were particularly glacial in 2012, passim in the Mâconnais) that engender more complexity in the wines. Chez Denogent there is a prolonged maturation in both foudres and barrels with minimal intervention. Jean-Jacques explained how with regard to 2012, they have done no racking or bâtonnage, and as a disciple of the Beaujolais ‘deity’ Jean Chauvet, no sulfur. And the great thing about these wines is that unless someone told you that this is essentially a “natural” wine, it certainly does not brandish those traits, but rather come across as scintillating, sensorial and certainly intellectual terroir-driven expressions of (mainly) Fuissé. You know, there is a sense of confidence that flows through this domaine – indeed this might have been the most impressive of all my visits in the Mâconnais. Speaking to all three, there is a sense of being on an assured footing, knowing how those gnarly old vines “tick," how to get the best out of those old boys. I tasted the 2012s still biding their time in barrel and all showed great potential, in my opinion better than the 2011s last year, demonstrating razor-sharp precision, perhaps more mercurial in the glass. Returning to Beaujolais, I also tasted their Beaujolais that comes from a single hectare leased from Jules Chauvet’s niece, Bénédicte, and of course made under natural winemaking tenets. eRobertParker.com.October, 2014