Domaine Sophie Cinier Classic Pouilly-Fuisse 2020

Domaine Sophie Cinier is small, just 2.33 hectares. All vineyards are around Fuissé, which is a 15-minute drive from Mâcon. 

Sophie’s family estate produced its first wines in 2000, but her family on her mother’s side of the family has lived in Fuissé and been involved in wine production since at least the time of her grandfather. The vines were planted in 1941 and came under Sophie’s control in 1998.

There is a lovely range of different styles from this family estate. The vineyard area has recently expanded to a new vineyard of 1.2 hectares in Igé, 10 miles north of her home in Fuissé. It’s planted with a hectare of Chardonnay for two new wines, a Bourgogne Blanc and a Mâcon Villages Le Clos, and 0.2 ha is planted with Pinot Noir. Unlike the large parts of the Mâconnais where machine harvesting is the norm, Sophie’s vineyard work is entirely manual.

From the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation Sophie Cinier produces three different cuvées – Classique, Collection and Vers Crâs. The first two are young and old vines respectively, while Vers Crâs comes from a single parcel of the same name just northeast of the village.

It was in 2013, a year with a very small crop that Sophie started thinking about separating parcels for two different cuvées. She was already bottling Vers Crâs separately, so for the remaining parcels she decided to separate the older vines from the younger. The younger vines at the bottom of the slope are used for the Classic cuvée. Higher up she has older vines for the Collection cuvée. The old vines are Riparia rootstocks. The grapes are always very small.

All wines are crystal clear examples of their respective appellations. The smaller wines such as Burgundy Chardonnay and Macon wines are fermented and stored in steel tanks to preserve their mineral expression along with the fine fruit as best as possible. The larger wines from Pouilly-Fuissé are vinified and aged in older casks, and Vers Crâs aged in a blend of 10% new casks, the rest aged casks.