The whites of Faiveley tend to get over-looked. They can be very good, and we had two excellent examples over the past few days. One from the old regime, one from the new.
1994 Faiveley Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits Dames Huguettes Blanc: In fabulous condition. Pours out with a green tinge. There’s some truffled honey, custard apple and bitter citrus. It has nice shape and some smoky mineral notes. The finish is not long, but is fresh and vital. A pleasant surprise.
2015 Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière Blanc: Very fresh under Diam. The fruit aromas and flavours are ripe, with notes of peach and mango. There’s a flinty/stony note too. It has some honeysuckle and is full and creamy. Acidity is modest but the wine is vital.
Thanks, Jeremy. I recently had a few bottles of the '21 Faiveley Mercurey Clos Rochette Blanc as part of a mixed Faiveley Mercurey six pack and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Very enjoyable. I preferred these over the Leflaive Maconnais SVD wines recently.
Another thanks Jeremy as I’ll seek out some of the Faiveley La Framboisere----btw do you know the meaning of Framboisiere? Reminds me of frambois which is the fruity, sparkling fermented beer drink.
I was about to post a thread on very much this same topic. I have become eager to learn and try out some white burgundy wines after a Montille Cailerets won our wine group’s magnum event earlier this year. Simplistically I categorize white burgundies into those that seem to have a nice touch of orchard fruits meaning I can discern either apricots, pears and pineapples and those wines that are more focused on lemon fruits. And finally a category of white burgs that a styled to highlight salinity, oyster shells etc.
My personal preference is the first with the orchard fruits and as such I’ve been looking at CT notes for ones similar to the Montille I liked so much. Which has led me to focus on Puligny-Montrachet. Some Paul Pernot wines such as Purcelles and Folatieres seem suitable candidates to try.
Any other suggestions for burgundy blancs with that orchard fruit component would be welcomed!!
I think a lot of the “value” white burgundy is being made outside of the CDB. VDJ, JMV, and Guffens are making fantastic wine that is in many cases as good as wine costing 3-5x as much from the CDB.
Thanks for those notes, Jeremy. Agree that, depending on producer and price, Bourgogne can get you a long way. The most consistent for me has been Meo’s Bourgogne Clos St. Philibert which usually punches way above its weight class.
Fruit profiles are certainly a personal thing, both on what you like and how you describe them. They also change in white Burgundy as the wine ages. White Burg, when the cork does its job, almost always start going a bit tropical with age. Even the most steely, lemon-infused Corton-Charlemagne will show more tropical flavours with 20+ years bottle age.
I think of apples, pears and peaches as orchard fruits. Citrus fruits to me are a sperate category, with lemon, lime, tangerine, oranges being in this group. Then you have tropical fruits, which I include pineapple, guava, Mango and pawpaw. You also have things that don’t fit any of these categories, like fig and various melons.
I reckon your best chance of orchard fruits is around Meursault, Puligny and Chassagne, although the style the maker makes the wine in very much dictates the fruit flavours you’ll get. Those who harvest relatively early in Meursault for example, will have a lot of citrus fruits and in the likes of Roulot’s wines I often see rockmelon.
Chablis and Corton-Charlemagne to me have always shown the most citrus, although with warmer harvests you tend to get more orchard fruits these days.
The Côte Chalonnaise and Maconnais tend to have more tropical fruits, but there’s also plenty of white peach and citrus in the wines from the likes of Guffens, Lorenzon and Dureuil-Janthial.
Appreciate that walk down the produce section! There certainly are more subsets of fruit than I was considering. Got me some good leads. Hoping as much I’ll get some leads on producers in the areas you mentioned. Montille was the wine that started this whole obsession. I read about some Paul Pernot wines and felt they would scratch the itch so bought a few----on hold until the Fall for shipping. The Montille owner suggested Drouhin also. I’ve been digging around Puligny but now I have some other regions to explore.
I wish I had the 20 years to wait out some of the wines (although I guess there’s winebid) as I’m turning 60 this year. Many good ideas in your post. Thanks for taking the time to put that reply together.
