2023 Domaine Jacques Saumaize Pouilly-Fuissé "Le Haut de La Roche Vieilles Vignes"

The Pouilly-Fuissé “le Haut de la Roche” bottling from the Saumaize family is outstanding in 2023. This wine is made from fifty year-old vines that are planted right at the base of the Roche de Vergisson, on extremely thin topsoils before one reached the Mother Rock of pure limestone. The wine’s aromatic constellation is gorgeous, wafting from the glass in a mix of pear, golden delicious apple, almond, white lilies, citrus zest, a gentle framing of oak and an almost dusty expression of limestone minerality. On the palate the wine is crisp, complex and full-bodied, with a beautiful core of fruit, superb mineral undertow, zesty acids and a very elegant, vibrant, poised and seamlessly balanced finish. The backend lift here is lovely. This reminds me a bit of the old bottlings from André Forest, whose Les Crays single vineyard wine was my first introduction to truly great, classic Pouilly-Fuissé all the way back in the second half of the 1980s! (Drink between 2025-2050)