Pouilly-Fume, named after the local town situated along the river Loire Pouilly-sur-Loire and Blanc Fume which Sauvignon is often called. Sauvignon Blanc grown on the predominately limestone soils with some flint (silex) can exhibit a smokey or gunflint character. Fume literally translates to smoke, but referrs to the morning fog that blankets the Loire valley. This region deserves credit from Robert Mondavi when in 1968 he branded his barrel-fermented, oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc under the title “Fume Blanc”.
Many generations before Robert Mondavi, the Figeat family has been growing and producing wine right outside the town of Pouilly-sur-Loire. Andre Figeat represents the current and 9th generation owner. Edmont, his father, taught Andre at a very young age. In fact, Andre fell into a vat of pressed juice at age 2. Before Edmond there was his father, Ferdinand, who worked alongside his brother Edme and assisted by their father Louis Figeat. Over the generations, the Figeat family has acquired a total of 15ha in Pouilly-sur-Loire and Cote du Nozet. Majority of their plantings are Sauvignon with some Chasselas.
Domaine Figeat Pouilly-sur-Loire. October 2010
Domaine Figeat Pouilly-sur-Loire. December 2010
Location, Geography and Soil
The site of their Pouilly-sur-Loire vineyard is located on D28A just NNW of the city Pouilly and just south of A77. This area is considered Les Varennes. The soil structure comes from the Oxfordian Superieur period 163 million years old, 7 million years earlier than the Kimmeridgian soil just to the north. Villiers limestone is the main characteristic in this region, known as caillottes or pebbles. These sedimentary limestone deposits are made up of large quantities of white pebbles, generally flat and between 5cm and 10cm in size and enveloped within varying amounts of clay and sand. They create a well-drained soil and one that heats up rapidly in the spring.
For an extensive breakdown of the geology and soil profiles I recommend visiting the Pouilly-Fume AOC website. If you’re into soil, you’ll get lost for hours (like I did).
The Wine
The Figeat family farms sustainability with the up-most care to the vine handled down from generation to generation. They employ a year round natural regime with no chemical herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. Their ‘Les Chaumiennes’ is fermented and matured in temperature controlled stainless steel with its indigenous yeasts, does not receive malolactic fermentation and is very lightly filtered. Their goal is to purely express Sauvignon and their individual terroir.
The 2013 Vintage
The winter of 2013 was extremely long with ample amounts of rain causing growers to battle rain and rot well into June. This filled the water tables thus creating limited water stress during the growing season. Though, the growing season started extremely late, the latest in almost 40 years. June, July and September were dry but not terribly hot. Some high July temperatures helped vegetation catch up. Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume were unthreatened from the massive hail storms in Vouvray in June devastating their vineyards. The rains returned in September and October forcing growers to the difficult decision to pick or wait.
Clean and bright, medium lemon colour. Closed and tight on the nose, medium intensity but complexed. Lemon, herbacceaous, white apricot, florals, wild flowers, honeysuckle, wet stone, and candied orange blossom. Pretty and elegant. There is a weightiness to the wine, med + body, very round and mouth-coating. Elevated acidity keeps the flavours lingering very long. Still delicate in the mouth with flavors, but in a restrained way. Amazing length, with balance, complexity, and texture. Elegant, and will surely open up with time. Drink 3-5 years.
Great delivery. Great arguments. Keep up the great work.
After I initially left a comment I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me
when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on every time
a comment is added I receive 4 emails with the same comment.
Is there a way you can remove me from that service?
Kudos!
I believe there’s a remove from notification link at the bottom of those emails. Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t let me see who’s clicked that box.