The slightly amber-colored 2000 Pouilly-Fuisse Clos Reyssier Vieilles Vignes has massive aromatic richness. Loads of spices, honeyed minerals, and liquefied walnuts can be found in its nose. This hugely expressive, medium-bodied wine is a spice liqueur. Fresh yet velvety-textured, its personality is prolonged to reveal an incredibly long, candied almond-packed finish. After spending 36 months in oak barrels without any sulphur, the 2000 Clos Reyssier was racked and put in assemblage tanks. It was tasted for this report immediately prior to bottling. In order to understand and appreciate Valette’s extended elevage wines, readers need to forget all their preconceived notions about oxidative characteristics. Much like the Jura’s, Vin Jaunes, and Chateau Chalons, Valette’s Clos Reyssier and Clos de M. Noly boast dark colors as well as the toasted almond and walnut flavors that are found in wines that have spent a long time in barrel. French wine lovers are well aware that 2002 was a particularly difficult vintage in the south of France due to incessant rains, culminating in massive deluges at harvest time, yet to the north, in the Cote d’Or, there were almost drought-like conditions for most of the growing season, with the exception of a rainy period in late August/early September. What appears to be little-known, however, is that the demarcation line between the dry north and the wet south bisected the Maconnais. As Gerard Valette noted, “To make good wines, we needed to do a severe sort at harvest because we had gotten our fair share of the rains of the south, and therefore needed to cope with some rot.”Importer: Kysela Pere et Fils, Fran Kysela, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722-9228
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