Château des Rontets Pouilly Fuissé

Burgundy Region

Château des Rontets Pouilly Fuissé Pouilly-Fuissé is the name of an appellation located about 10 kms from the city of Macon in Southern Burgundy. The wine can come from five villages, Pouilly, Fuissé, Vergisson, Chaintre and Solutré. The vineyards of Pouilly-Fuissé are punctuated by the majestic cliff of Solutré. The only grape permitted within the appellation is Chardonnay.

Château des Rontets has been owned by the Gazeau-Varambon family since 1850 and is located at the top of the weeded hill at the south of the village of Fuissé, in the resort known as Les Rontes. All the vines, except for one plot (Pierrefolle), surround the house. These vineyards are surrounded by stone walls, thus forming a clos which overlooks the landscape toward Pouilly, Solutré and Vergisson.

Fabio Montrasi was born in Milano where he met his wife Claire Gazeau. They worked together for a number of years in the architecture field. Fabio also spent a year in London where he had a job as a copywriter in an advertising firm.

When Claire's grandmother died, the two decided to return to her estate in Fuissé and take over the property. But instead of simply cultivating the grapes and contracting them to négociants, they decided to return the soil to its natural state, and put their own personal mark on the wine. The renovation of the chai also entailed a huge amount of work, but over the past few years, the couple is nearly there.

The soil at the clos is comprised of a mixture of clay and limestone, and the subsoil goes back to the Bathonian Superior. This fairly pebbly subsoil favors good water drainage and circulation.

The total surface of the vines is six hectares. The oldest vines date back to 1910 and 1920, while all the other vines inside the clos were planted between 1945 and 1975. The exterior plot, Pierrefolle, averages 35 years old. Since 1996, a further hectare has been planted with Massale selection (no clones).

The whole vineyard is cultivated and plowed, with no use of chemical pesticides. The owners use a measured strategy of protection from Cryptogamic diseases, such as the diffusion of pheroimones against leaf-roller moths that creates sexual confusion. Organic agriculture is adopted on half of the vineyards and will extend to the totality in the next few years. To protect the variety and diversity of the ecological system, a number of simple measured and reduced interventions are employed to eliminate weeds by plowing, limitation of anti-crytogamic spraying and attentive choice of the less toxic products. In addition, the couple use a fertilising strategy, in partnership with a group of various Burgundy wine producers. Limited utilisation of compost and micro-biological activators.

The couple's first aim is to produce grapes of the best quality: optimal ripeness is the principal goal of every year. It is thus possible to avoid the addition of sugar or tartaric acid, and obtain the most natural wine. Grapes are picked by hand and in small cases, in order to respect the integrity of the fruit until the beginning of the pneumatic pressing.

The addition of sulfites is reduced to a minimum, and the alcoholic fermentation takes place only with natural yeasts, with a temperature control for the 30 hl oak vats. Fermentations and maturing on lees are made in french oak barrels and vats, with maturing periods going from 10-20-24 months depending on the cuvée.

The wine is fined with bentonite only when needed, and only the Clos Varambon cuvée has a light Kieselguhr filtration before bottling. After a long ageing on lees and a few attentive rackings, the two other cuvees gain a stability level high enough to be bottled without any fining or filtration.

Clos Varambon: This cuvée is produced from vines situated inside the Clos, planted in the 50's and 60's with a density of 8,500-9,000 plants per hectare. The average yield is 45-50 hl/ha. fermentations and maturing on lees are made in recent barrels and 30 hl vats, and the bottling takes place just before the following harvest after a light Kieselguhr filtration. White/gold color. Elegant aromas of ripe fruits (pear, pineapple), wonderful texture, with well integrated oak and lift on the long finish.

Château des Rontets Pouilly Fuissé Pierrefolle: This plot of 0.5 ha is 500 metres south from the Clos, and was planted between 1965 and 1970. The granitic subsoil, the silty soil and the East orientation originate a cuvee fairly different from the ones produced in the clos. The average yield is 40-45 hl/ha/ Fermentation and maturing on lees are made in recent and new barrels. The wine is racked in stainless steel vats just before the following harvest, and bottled a few months later without filtration. Higher pitched notes include lemon curd and flowers. Plenty of ripe pineapple on the palate, with some classy oak notes on the long finish.

Les Birbettes: From the argot words: birbe, birbon, birbette, meaning old. The vines were planted in the 1920's, and are on the east side of the clos. Their density is 10,000 plants per hectare, and the average yield is 35-40 hl/ha. Fermentations and maturing on lees are made in new (25%), one-year and two-year-old barrels. The wine is racked into older barrels just before the following harvest, and bottled before summer without filtration. Richer mouthfeel, with additional notes of vanilla and honey. Wonderfully long.

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