2017 J.A. Ferret Pouilly-Fuissé

Delicious and refreshing.

Wet stone, yellow apple, and white peach greet you on the nose. Elegant, the palate is pear and crisp lemon, the fruit sun-kissed without trending towards the tropical and the profile is generous and round without being flabby. Exactly what you’d want from a domaine doing quality viticulture in a less-heralded region and far better than a lot of Bourgogne blanc offerings.

One of my favorite estates in the Macon. When Madame Jeanne Ferret owned the estate (20+ years ago) we used to visit regularly. Her single vineyard wines were a revelation to taste - and she was something special. Haven’t had any of the wines since Jadot purchased the firm, good to see the wines are still top notch.

I’d love to try their single-vineyard cuvées. I’d also like to try their wines with some cellaring time - William notes almost every wine of their will reward bottle age. I’m just really excited for the future of the region as thoughtful producers and their attention to viticulture practices become more and more prevalent.

Sean, the Macon has been my favorite wine district in France for damn near 40 years. When prices were cheap, we used to frequent some of the better co-ops in Macon and have cuvees bottled just for us (I was in retail back then). My favorite was the co-op in Prisse’, where we could get a couple hundred cases for $48 delivered, sell them for $7.99 a bottle and make lots and lots of friends (this was the 1980s). I still drink a ton of Macon.

And the Ferret wines do age extremely well. Neal Rosenthal used to be the importer, and I used to purchase older vintages from him at huge discounts (so he could make room for the newer vintages). At ten years, they are sublime.

Sean, you may already know this, but this producer is repped by Halpern in Ontario and as such IIRC several of their cuvees were being poured at their portfolio tasting this past November. I think I found that as I worked my way up the ladder I actually liked the wines less. In my view they became too large scaled, and I actually liked this entry level bottling best.

Mine does have a Halpern sticker on the back though I got it from the VCC. That’s surprising! I wouldn’t have thought they’d be too blowsy but was there more oak usage on the single-vineyard wines?

Visited there five years ago. Audrey was the winemaker. Not sure if she still is. It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit. I had a 2012 last year and it was excellent.

Had the 2016 Clos des Prouges and it was tight and linear when I was expecting fatter and more melon fruit driven for a 2016 Macon. Oak was never even a thought. We do represent these.

The single vineyard wines have always been large scaled. Even back in the 80s/90s when I purchased them regularly, they were pretty lavish. They did age well back then, but frankly, I always preferred the regular bottling over the single vineyard wines.

Love J.A. Ferret. One of my litmus tests for great wine stores, and much better value than most on the Cotes.

Thanks for the note. I used to sell Ferret years ago in a past job and loved the wines. I need to pick some up.

Interesting to hear you say this. Which vintage was being shown? While the wines certainly do gain in texture and concentration as one ascends the range, to my palate they remain very chiseled and incisive. Stylistically, the wines Audrey is making are quite a lot racier and more overtly tightly wound out of the gates than the late Madame Ferret’s wines, and they cary a more discreet patina from their élevage in barrel, too. I would go so far as to say that they’re some of the most precise wines being made in the appellation today!

Thank you! It’s certainly one of the regions I most enjoy reviewing.

Wow. I’m usually a fairly detail oriented taster, though in this case I didn’t take notes. Looking back at the tasting booklet provided the producer I tasted was JJ Vincent / Château Fuissé. I think the visual similarity between the written “JA Ferret” and “JJ Vincent” (starting with two initials and ending in a ‘t’), combined with the same AOC and the top cuvée being called “Tete de Cru” that caused my confusion. Disregard my comments above.

Ah, well that would definitely make more sense!

I opened this wine last night and was quite impressed. Sean’s note is spot on, though, my bottle showed a good bit of reductive-flinty aromas that I find very appealing in WB, so I was all in. Really terrific wine that seems built to age a bit. It sails on and on across the palate. Punches above it’s weight. Or maybe I need to recalibrate my weight class expectations.

I’m so jealous! I wish I had bought more at the time.

I did go and reload a few this morning after last night’s bottle.