Warm Apple Pie Baked into a Chardonnay

I tasted this wine yesterday and I could not wait to talk about it. One of the most interesting bottles I have ever had from Pouilly Fuisse! The nose jumps from the glass showing warm apple pie, and white peach. Upon tasting the wine, I was engulfed with a pleasant oxidative note of baked apples drizzled with caramel. After I let the wine open subtle hints of tangerine, lemon, and kiwi started to emerge all wrapped with a cutting acidity and an intense mineral finish. This is a very special bottle of chardonnay and a really fun wine to drink.
 
Having a vineyard in the family since 1848 has its advantages. Now on its third generation in the family, great-granddaughter Claire Gazeau and her husband Fabio Montrasi took over the vineyard in 1995 and were excited to be certified organic by 2005. The chateau has a scant 5.6 ha under vine on a hilltop overlooking the village of Fuisse. The hilltop exposure is paramount to the quality of this wine, giving massive temperature swings between the cool nights and hot summer days. Planted on very thing topsoil, there is a large bed of limestone with sporadic clay deposits helping to add to the complexity of the wines.

The grapes are harvested by hand and allowed a long fermentation time, lasting several months. The long fermentation processes as well as aging the wines in larger French Oak barrels gives the wine its unique oxidative characteristic that I find so appealing.

These wines are not meant to be aged and are drinking perfectly right now!