Domaine Thibert Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru ‘Vers Cras’ 2020

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Deep dive into the Mâcon in the Wine Bites Magazine Article “Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 12 – The Villages of the Mâcconais”.

An assemblage of three closely located plots: ‘Vers Cras’, ‘Vers Cras Vivarais’ and ‘Clos Gaillard’. Average altitude of the three plots at 252 metres above sea level. Soil is composed of dark brown, fine beige and white limestone, often massive and hard, sometimes chalky (Jurassic period). The soil is thin and very stony.

Vinification is 18 to 22 months, in barrels for 11 months, and for the rest of the time in stainless steel vats. Bottled with little or no filtration.

About Domaine Thibert

This Thibert family of wine-growers have been living at the heart of the Fuissé village since 1668. They started out with a mere 1.6 hectares and have grown over the past 350 years to 22 hectares, all planted to Chardonnay, in and around Fuissé. This is an exciting Estate producing complex and exhilarating wines.

After a 10-year application process, the French National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) approved the classification making Pouilly-Fuissé the first appellation within Burgundy’s Mâconnais sub-region to benefit from premier cru vineyards.

The 22 new premier crus represent a total of 194ha under vine, accounting for roughly 24% of Pouilly-Fuissé’s total vineyard area (800ha). The newly-classified vineyards are spread over four communes of the appellation that only produce white wine from Chardonnay: Chaintré, Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly and Vergisson. The new status begins with the 2020 vintage.

Fuissé is nestled in a natural amphitheatre, with a forest at its South. There is a light slope in the Northern part of the village, where the Romanin runs. The village is terraced from West to East by the wines’ hillsides.

Fuissé is known for its 19th century great neo-gothic Church. Fuissé is, together with the hamlet of Pouilly, at the roots of the appellation. The Chardonnay variety, that was spelt “Chardenet” back then, was growing on Pouilly’s hillsides as early as the 18th century.

“Attention to detail at every stage is the mantra here: and from impeccably farmed vineyards to a meticulously maintained winery, that it is practiced as well as preached is easy to see … Precise and incisive, these are pure and elegant Mâconnais wines endowed with serious concentration and structure, and I found a great deal to admire—not least the fact that the Thiberts are only now releasing their superb 2017 vintage. This is clearly one of the region’s leading domaines today, and I look forward to reporting on future vintages in these pages.”

William Kelly, TWA

In the Vineyard

The family have farmed organically since 1998, they short-prune for low yields The viticulture is fastidious and organic.

In the Winery

In the cellar, élevage is long but barrels are sparingly employed—complemented by stainless steel and glass—but when they are, they’re carefully chosen from Tonnellerie François Frères and replaced after just a few years.

Stylistically the wines are beautifully concentrated, rich and layered with flavor yet fine, taut and complex and deliver terrific expression of place.

It is the aim of the Domaine to keep alcohol levels at a moderate 13% as Christophe wants to maintain typicity, elegance and freshness.

The 2020 Vintage at Domaine Thibert

If you feel as though you’ve seen this set of wines and reviews before, you’re right, you have. Like several of his colleagues, Christophe Thibert has decided to begin releasing the domaine’s wines after they’ve had a few years of aging, arguing that too many wines are drunk too young. In particular, he wants to persuade consumers that the wines of the Mâconnais are not just ‘pop and pour’ and deserve to be taken as seriously as those from the Côte d’Or and Chablis.

As such, I repeat what Thibert told me at the time that I visited to taste the 2020s from cask in July 2021: “2020 gave us a growing season where we had some difficulties but nothing much out of the ordinary, whatever that is exactly these days! We picked from the 17th of August and brought in essentially spotless fruit of normal yields and very reasonable potential alcohols of between 12.8 and 13.2%. Perhaps the greatest challenge in 2020 was to maintain the freshness so we did everything possible to this end as I just hate heavy wines. To this end, one of the interesting aspects of the vintage, not only analytically but also from a gustatory point of view, is how dry the musts fermented out, which is to say less than 1 gram of unfermentable sugars. This renders the finishes bone-dry and makes then very refreshing. I confess to be content with how the 2020s are coming along, which isn’t always the case.” Thibert noted that the 2020s were bottled between July and August 2022 under natural corks with wax capsules.

I would add that many of them are excellent and well-worth your interest.

Allen Meadows, Burghound

Where in the World is Domaine Thibert?

Domaine Thibert is based in the Village of Fuissé, one of four villages that are part of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation in the Mâcon region of Burgundy.

In a demonstration of just how good the wines of Mâcon are, after a 10-year application process, the French National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) approved the classification making Pouilly-Fuissé the first appellation within Burgundy’s Mâconnais sub-region to benefit from premier cru vineyards.

The 22 new premier crus represent a total of 194ha under vine, accounting for roughly 24% of Pouilly-Fuissé’s total vineyard area (800ha). The newly-classified vineyards are spread over four communes of the appellation that only produce white wine from Chardonnay: Chaintré, Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly and Vergisson. The new status begins with the 2020 vintage.

It is the first time since 1943 that a premier cru level is newly recognised in a Burgundian appellation.

There are undoubtedly other sites worthy of Premier Cru status, Viré-Clessé will surely push for their best sites to be upgraded too!

Pouilly-Fuissé including new Premier Cru’s