Famille Paquet Pouilly-Fuisse 2021 Front Bottle Shot
Famille Paquet Pouilly-Fuisse 2021 Front Bottle Shot Famille Paquet Pouilly-Fuisse 2021 Front Label

Winemaker Notes

This wine displays a yellow light color. A very attractive, well-defined nose with a pronounced fruity character (white and yellow fruit). A subtle minerality comes through after swirling the glass. Well-structured on the palate, fat, fleshy and taut. Fine, delicate and very persistent. A classy white wine.

A great accompaniment to gastronomic cuisine, lobster, full-flavored fish, calf sweetbread or sautéed mushrooms.

Professional Ratings

  • 91

    An elegant and lively Pouilly-Fuisse that combines fresh citrus fruit with the first hints of bottle-maturation character (think toasted nuts and beeswax). There’s nothing flashy about this, but it is prototypical for the appellation, with fine, chalky minerality at the crisp finish. From vines planted in 1958 and 1980. Fermented and matured in oak casks for 12 months, then matured for a further 9 months in stainless steel.

Famille Paquet

Famille Paquet

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Famille Paquet Winery Video

In 2016 Camille and Mathieu Paquet took over their family's estate located in the village of Davayé, which at the time was called Domaine des Valanges. Davayé is within the appellation of Saint-Veran in the Macon, and much of the winery’s holdings are inside this appellation as well. Formerly, Domaine des Valanges was producing typical Macon wines, that is to say, big volume wines at a low price. They were solid but nothing noteworthy and mostly destined for volume distribution. The Paquet brothers really wanted to do something of quality and not just continue to make "grocery store wine," if you will, so they started by changing the name to Famille Paquet and, over the years, have steadily been making improvements and investments. They converted to Organic farming and have since converted to Biodynamics and will be certified in 2023. They constructed a state-of-the-art new winery in which they were able to vinify the 2022 vintage. This allowed them to move out of their literal garage, giving them much more space. There is no more pumping as the grapes and wines are now moved solely by gravity, and the extra space means longer elevage times and investment in more tanks and barrels. In the garage, they had to bottle earlier because they had no room so the maximum ageing time was a year. Now for many of the cuvees, you will see 12-18 months before bottling, resulting in more complex wines. Lastly, they changed their vine training to effectively reduce yields by almost half. Previously they were farming like most in the Macon and averaged around 75 hl/ha, whereas now they aim for 45 hl/ha in a good year. All of these investments and improvements have resulted in wines that are several steps up in quality from the early vintages. These are now serious white burgundies, and Famille Paquet is positioning itself among the first tier of producers in the Macon region.

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One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.

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Pouilly-Fuissé

Maconnais, Burgundy

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The source of some of the most sought-after white wines of the Mâconnais, Pouilly-Fuissé is produced exclusively from the Chardonnay grape and tends to be slightly richer in style than wines from its northern neighbor, the Côte de Beaune—mainly due to warmer weather. Wines from Pouilly-Fuissé have some versatility; they can be enjoyed young and can also often improve with a little time in the cellar. Pouilly-Fuissé wines are considered some of the best values for white Burgundy.

Similar to the Côte de Beaune, the soils of Pouilly-Fuissé are mainly limestone and clay. The appellation includes the communes of Fuissé, Solutré (which includes Pouilly), Vergisson and Chaintré. The richest Chardonnay comes from Fuissé and Solutré-Pouilly, whereas the Chardonnay at higher elevation, from Vergisson, expresses more minerality and finesse. Pairing Pouilly-Fuissé with lobster or King Crab will bring great joy not only to your palate—but also your pocketbook!

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