Domaine Gaillard Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru Les Crays 2023

This Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru Les Crays comes from a 57-are plot located below the Roche de Vergisson, in the southern Mâconnais. Facing due south, on steep slopes, the vine takes root in a soil of limestone scree covering marls in places. The vines, 40 years old on average, are worked entirely by hand by Domaine Gaillard, as tractors cannot reach them.

The harvest is done by hand. After gentle pressing in a pneumatic press and static settling at 15 °C, alcoholic fermentation takes place at 18 °C with native yeasts, followed by malolactic fermentation. The cuvée is vinified without sulphur. Ageing combines 85% tank and 15% new oak barrels, for a very confidential production.

This wine reveals notes of yellow peach, apricot, pear, candied citrus, white flowers, vanilla, nutmeg, toasted hazelnut and flint. Delicious and generous, it already shows a pronounced mineral character. The attack is fine, then opens onto a generous mid-palate, through to a long, spicy finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.