It was scorching in Pouilly-Fuissé when I arrived on a June afternoon. Frédéric Marc Burrier was waiting for me outside Château de Beauregard leaning against his 1967 Citroën DS station wagon. “Do you mind if we drive in this,” he asked. “It’s almost as old as me.”
Burrier spent 17 years as President of the growers’ union (Union des Producteurs de Pouilly-Fuissé), and is largely responsible for the creation of Pouilly-Fuissé’s 22 premiers crus which were ratified in 2020. I’d asked Burrier if we might tour the premiers crus together, allowing him to fill me in on the story and tell me about the climats he was so instrumental in raising from village to premier cru.
We set off across the rocky ground. The ride was surprisingly comfortable bouncing on the hydraulic suspension developed by Citroën for this classic motor. “There’s a bit of leakage from the system,” says Burrier ruefully, “but it’s a great family car. There are two seats in the trunk.”
There are 194ha (479 acres) of Pouilly-Fuissé premier cru scatted across four communes. The heartland of the region is Fuissé, a large village with an outsized church, which is flanked by slopes of premier cru. There are 51.35ha (127 acres) of premier cru in Fuissé. On the north side of the church these vineyards flow into those around the neighboring hamlet of Pouilly. However, Pouilly turns its back on Fuissé and links itself with Solutré, which doesn’t seem logical, but so little in Burgundy is. (Pouilly-Solutré has 71.73ha [177 acres]
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
