Château du Clos, Pouilly-Fuissé Hommage a Léonard Chandon 2017

This is a new producer suggested to us by Frédéric Burrier, who has signed a 20-year agreement to manage the vines, make and distribute the wine.

It was bought by Louis Montpir in 1782, and now the eighth generation, in the form of Jean-François Combier, runs the property. One of the famous names of the family was Léonard Chandon, whose brother married Adélaïde Moët forming the champagne house Moët et Chandon.

The vineyard is a true Clos, a walled vineyard, of 2.95 ha of which 2.70ha is classified Pouilly-Fuissé, with the name of the parcel 'Pouilly'. The remaining 0.25 ha is classified Mâcon Solutré-Pouilly. The sloping vineyard faces east and north-east. Since 2013 the vineyards have been certified organic.

The soil is an interesting limestone-clay mix of a type called marnes, very high in limestone. The oldest vines date from 1936, and the average age is about 40 years old. The wines are aged for about a year in 228-litre barrels, and 3-6 months in tank thereafter. The wines seem to unite the usually contradictory forces of freshness and power in an original and remarkable fashion. 

Two cuvées are normally made. One from the younger vines, labelled Pouilly and one from the oldest vines in the Clos called Hommage a Léonard Chandon. This latter usually only about 3,000 bottles.