Pouilly-Fuissé 2013
Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée
Pierre André
21190 Meursault (Côte-d’Or)
Sampled December 21st, 2016.
A pretty traditional, if somewhat modest start with butter and pineapple, but then a truckload of minerals is dumped on your palate, together with a tank of lemon and lime. Very little oak and almond follow. It’s a fair contender for the title of ‘Freshest Chardonnay in town’. It makes me very happy.
Tasted with pan-fried salmon and some vegetables.
My experiences with Chardonnay took a false start with some cheap and mean products that had more in common with soaked cardboard than with any grape juice. There was a point where I rather preferred the down-to-earth Aligoté to anything Chardonnay – honest. I was not alone: in fact Air France served a pretty nice Aligoté in their inter-European Intermediate Class up to 2005 or so. By the time they replaced it, I stepped over to the Thalys so I do not know whether the replacement was an improvement in fact. (*)
I have come some way since then. I learned that oak is your friend if not applied in tea bag-fulls like some mean Australians are doing (well, no-one in Europe would ever dream of doing that, right ?). And that paying a little more gives vast increases in quality.
This example may even be too fresh for the taste of some. But as I am a hopeless lover of salmon, a little acidity does not frighten me.
(*) What I do know, is that I preferred Gare de Nord over Aeroport Charles de Gaulle 100 out of 100 times.
As this will be the last post this year: Happy 2017 everyone !
Liquidity Management 