Pouilly-Fume

Pouilly-Fumé is a famous Loire white Sauvignon Blanc appellation located on the river's right bank of the Loire.

Compared to Sancerre on the opposite bank, the Pouilly-Fumé appellation is approximately half  the size at 1200 ha, tightly focused round the villages of St Andelain and Les Loges on a fairly homogeneous, south-west facing slope. The appellation's soils are divided between limestone-rich Kimmeridgean and Portlandian (less active calcium) clay, with the cherry on the cake being the red flinty clay soils clustered around the St Andelain button./knoll.

Top vineyards in Pouilly-Fumé include `les Cocques', `les Bois', and `les Cornets'. The result is a floral, finely poised but powerful nose with a noticeably limestony dry minerally palate, held taut by a fine structure. Indeed such is the stony intensity of a good Pouilly-Fumé that an increasing number of producers are ageing their best crus in french oak, to good effect.

Recommmended Producers:
Didier Dagueneau, Alain Cailbourdin, André Dezat and the up and coming Nicolas Gaudry.