Longtime readers know that the Valettes are committed to the long-term barrel aging of their top wines, so they won’t be surprised to learn that the 2001 Pouilly-Fuisse Clos Reyssie Reserve Particuliere was bottled in December, 2005 after 48 months in barrel. Its nuanced nose reveals fresh minerals, hints of butterscotch, notes of citrus juices, as well as a traces of rancio, the French term for the aromas of an aged wine. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and satin-textured, this fascinating wine offers a complex, astonishingly long personality awash in lemongrass, caramelized minerals, sweet lime juice, and buttered spices. Given the fact that this wine has “breathed” for years while in barrel, there is no reason to believe it will not enjoy a long life in bottle. Drink it over the next 10 years.
Visiting the Valette family, whose home/estate is perched on Chaintre’s hillside affording views of the Saone valley (all the way to the Alps), is always a fascinating adventure. Ever since the family patriarch, Gerard Valette, left the local coop, he and his family have been fiercely independent, bucking both viticultural and winemaking traditions. For example, when all their neighbors had finished harvesting the 2003s, the Valettes were waiting for the fruit to be ripe, and when all their neighbors had bottled and shipped their 2004s, the Valettes’ were still undergoing elevage. Sadly, this outstanding, iconoclastic estate, whose offerings grace the finest restaurant wine lists in France, is no longer imported into the United States.
No American importer.
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