This should really be in the Côte Chalonnaise thread!
But, Les Champs de Thémis is making very good wines in Bouzeron (albeit with some “natural” tendencies). Jérôme Galeyrand and Julien Cruchandeau are two producers from elsewhere who make nice examples of Bouzeron.
$8.71 a bottle and damn tasty
IMO the wines under this label are pleasant enough, but nowhere near the interest of the other Chateau Fuisse / JJ Vincent Pouilly-Fuisse wines. Likewise, you could spend a little more and get one of those. I think they would have been better declassifying this label, to better set expectations. IIRC it’s a combination of bought in fruit, plus some of their own from the other plots.
Thanks, Ian, for additional info. Not really familiar with the producer, and just spending more time recently with the wines of the region.
I haven’t had the ‘19 yet. Extraordinary price for that! Costco?
Recently had two 2020’s from Sangouard-Guyot, the Terroirs, and the Authentique. While the Terroirs was decent enough, if not that exciting, I thought the Authentique was excellent and a very good value.
An excellent choice of region Dennis - and FWIW we’ve yet to encounter any poxed wines from any producer at any level in the Maconnais.
One producer I haven’t seen mentioned is Rene Michel (unless it’s the same producer as Andrew Bair mentioned above), operating out of Vire-Clesse. It’s been well over a decade since I drank one, but imagine a producer that makes Thevenet look safe and restrained, and that’s what I got from their wines. I have vivid recollection of a 15%alc bottle that pushed things just a little too far for my tastes, but others were less extreme and much more exciting and with some botrytis to varying degrees in those bottles we drank.
Checking back, it’s close to 2 decades since we had a bottle ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
, so who knows if they are still like they were back then
Mind you, these are the only ones I remember being oxidized early in their life.
Texas grocery chain HEB
We always tend to assume that this is at play, and some parts of Viré-Clessé are indeed susceptible to botrytis (especially the hamlet of Quintaine), but I think a lot of those exotic aromas are actually coming from “muscaté” selections of Chardonnay. This isn’t much talked about but these selections are endemic in the Mâconnais (you will also find them in places in the Côte de Beaune [old vines around the village of Meursault for example], Chablis, and even Champagne [Laherte make a cuvée that contains old vine Chardonnay muscaté], as well as in California [so-called Rued Chardonnay, which was one of the Wente selections that had muscaté properties, as well as modern clones which you find especially in e.g. Monterrey). What they have in common is being aromatic, as well as tending to producer higher pH, higher alcohol wines. However there’s a big difference between old massale selections and modern clonal selections which tend to be less subtle and less complex.
Terrific insights William, very interesting indeed.
Responding to an earlier question about Andre Bonhomme: great quality and very keenly priced too. Their single vineyard cuvées come from seriously old vines (110yrs + for Hauts de Menards!) and the go light on the oak as has been mentioned. Tasted through the range a couple of times at a salon in Lyon and enjoyed drinking their entry level cuvées: Vielles Vignes and Les Brenillions. Style is rich and textural but in balance and there is a transparency in how they express their different sites. I’m still sitting on the single vineyards: I was told to definitely give these a few years before opening and Williams 5-15 recon seems about right to me!
Other recent Mâconnais:
Jacques Saumaize Vielles Vignes de Crèches Saint-Veran 2019
Saumaize-Michelin Puilly Fuisse Clos sur la Roche 2018 - impressed how this stayed balanced and mineral given heat of the vintage…
Domaine de Poncetys Au Clos du château Saint-Veran 2018
All really enjoyable but the Maconnais that really blew me away was:
Nicolas Maillet Maçon-Verze Le Chemin Blanc 2017 - stunning wine, I loved this one!
Overall, i’m a Mâconnais fan and have migrated my chardonnay budget as prices for my favorites in the Cote de Beaune have just gotten silly…
What do you all think of Pascal Bonhomme’s (Viré-Clessé) wines? It was my first try but I really enjoyed the 2018 VV, especially for the low $20s it runs. It also seemed to handle the ripeness of the vintage very well.
Oops. Sorry for lumping everything together. I honestly thought of it as all one great big thing down there. It just means I don’t drink enough from there to study the region enough I guess.
Thanks for the recommendations William.
One big difference is that, until 2020, the Mâconnais didn’t have any premiers crus and the Chalonnaise did. This is because the boundary between occupied and Vichy France separated the Mâconnais and Chalonnaise. Premiers crus were introduced in 1943 as a way to preclude compulsory purchasing of Burgundy’s best wines at low prices by the occupying Germans (the armistice agreement stated that grand and premier cru wines had to be bought at the market price, anything else were fair game for compulsory purchase if push came to shove). So there are lots in the Chalonnaise, and none in the Mâconnais.
They’re good! Farming is conventional but diligent, and they age well. Pascal and his wife split from the Bonhomme dynasty domaine a while back to do their own thing, and have nicely situated holdings (both in the tenderloin of the slope to the north of the AOC, and high up on the hillside on land that was reclaimed from scrub using heavy machinery [as in Meursault and elsewhere] in the 1980s).
I’m suprised no one has mentioned Leflaive yet. Does anyone have much experience with those Leflaive bottlings? It seems that Leflaive is really making a push into the region.
I’ve had quite a few in the last 10 days or so:
2019 Barraud Pouily Fuisse En Buland: Seems to have a lot of potential, and this is really early to be trying some. Not as good now as the below.
2018 Chateau Fuissse Pouilly Fuisse Le Clos: Just fantastic value and drinking, even at this early stage. Lovely balance, no sign of excessive heat for me. Yes, fruit driven, but would beat up a whole lot of Meursault at twice the price.
2018 Chateau Fuissse Tete de Cuvee: See above. It’s hard to know which I would say is “better”. Both just lovely.
2018 Guffens-Heynen Pouilly Fuisse Les Trois C: Harder and needs more time than any of the above at this point. Maybe great potential, but hold off.
Had the 2019 Domaine Leflaive Mâcon-Verzé a couple of nights ago. Really good. A recent 2020 Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon Mâcon-Villages was also very tasty.
That is why I am enjoying these threads. Learning a lot.
That is why I am enjoying these threads. Learning a lot.
Howard - thanks for starting the thread. I started to get interest in Burgundy in the early 1980s when there was no need to get into Macconias deep ( repeat : deep )…unless…
Yes - I am enjoying reading these treads - but that will be all… 
![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}