Fidèle is a blanc de noirs (100% Pinot Noir) grown on Kimmeridgian limestone soils. This is from 2019 but includes roughly 5% reserve wine from a perpetual blend started in 2001 and stored in two giant old foudres. The Fonnet vineyard, located in a small, enclosed valley, forms the heart of this cuvée. Sorbée provides much of the balance, topped off by Châtel—a very rocky and limestone-rich vineyard with 20-plus-year-old Pinot Noir vines. Overall, the vine age for this wine averages 30 years. Following pressing in a traditional, vertical Coquard press, Fidèle is vinified entirely without added yeast or chaptalisation, in used Burgundian barrels for 10 months (these barriques came from Domaine Arnaud Ente in Meursault). The wine then spent 15 to 20 months on lees in bottle after secondary fermentation and was disgorged with zero dosage. Gautherot describes this as “a dangerous wine”—the bottle disappears so quickly—and this description could not be more apt for the 2019. Lovers of Vouette et Sorbée should get excited! Rob Walters.
