Description
Jessica Litaud’s Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly embodies the perfect balance between freshness and finesse, allowing the Solutré terroir to express its full maturity. The flinty nose is very similar to that of Mâcon-Vergisson wines, whilst adding a sunny character. An interesting pairing with a creamy risotto or some razor clams cooked on the griddle.
About the Mâcon Solutré Pouilly appellation
Character of the wines
The white Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly presents a deep golden-yellow colour to the eye, often more intense than that of its northern neighbours. On the first sniff, it opens generously, yet without exuberance, with sweet notes of candied fruit and mixed citrus (lemon, grapefruit), followed by hints of quince jelly and fresh mirabelle plums. The perceived ripeness is thus combined with aromatic freshness, offering a truly indulgent experience on the palate. The wine is well-structured, yet remains lively on the finish.
Location
Produced in the Solutré-Pouilly terroir, an iconic village in the southern Mâconnais, Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly is one of the three appellations defined within this wine-growing region of ancient renown, alongside Pouilly-Fuissé and Saint-Véran.
For millennia, the Solutré spur has captured people’s attention. Initially viewed as a natural curiosity, then as an obvious defensive promontory, this remarkable site combines the attractions of a geological, archaeological and oenological hotspot. The limestone terrace offers, in the open air, a stratigraphic view of the landscape’s structure, composed of fossilised coral reefs deposited there by a warm, shallow sea in a tropical climate 170 million years ago.
A terrain highly conducive to hunting between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, during the Upper Palaeolithic, Solutré now marks, for the traveller heading north, the embarkation point for the Burgundian wine-making vessel, with its rock serving as a mineral figurehead. A more discreet landmark, the hill and hamlet of Pouilly, whose château belonged to a farmer working for the Abbots of Cluny, had its name linked to Solutré by decree in 1912.
Terroirs
At this southern tip of the Mâconnais, the vineyard-covered slopes are exposed to the warm wind and come close to the symbolic threshold of 2,000 hours of sunshine per year. Nevertheless, the location of the two small areas defined by the Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly appellation
mitigates this southern influence. Consequently, the harvest usually takes place in the final days of the vintage, on these plots situated at around 370 metres (La Levée) below the Roche de Solutré (493 metres) and between 345 and 400 metres (at Le Rompay), on the ridge of Mont de Pouilly (485 metres).
The vines in the La Levée area enjoy a south-facing aspect and are planted on a gentle slope, on moderately deep, relatively stony and very marly (clayey) soils dating from the Lias (-180 million years), i.e. the Lower Jurassic.
As they approach the slopes of Mont de Pouilly, the east-northeast-facing vines take root in yellowish, fossil-bearing marl-limestone soils from the Middle Jurassic period (170 million years ago). This substrate is also found within the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation.
(Source: Vins de Bourgogne)
Terroirs
The Saint-Véran vineyard is divided into two separate plots, separated by its neighbour Pouilly-Fuissé. Both occupy the slopes of the Solutré ridge. The backbone of this ridge is formed of ‘entrochic limestone’ from the Middle Jurassic period. On the western slope of these rocks, in older terrain (Lias), the steep slopes consist of grey marl (vineyards facing south and west in Chasselas and Leynes). On the gentle slopes of the eastern side of the rocks, marly limestone predominates (vineyards facing east in Prissé and Davayé). In Chânes and Prissé, on the left bank of the Petite Grosne, the vines are planted on entroque limestone, often covered with a layer of clay containing chailles (a type of flint).
(Source: Vins de Bourgogne)
What to eat with a Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly from Jessica Litaud?
- leek tart
- creamy risottos
- seafood à la plancha (razor clams),
- oysters au gratin
- Burgundy snails
