POUILLY FUISSÉ

2018 Vieilles Vignes La Verchère Domaine Daniel Barraud

EN PRIMEUR

Again a deliciously bright attack - but this has an imposing sense of weight and power in the shadows. Builds nicely - sleekly into quite a big broad polished weight. Gorgeous fruit. Firm white and yellow flesh. Sweet pear and tart peach fruit, nice bright notes. Delivery is impeccable. Big, but so smoothly done. 65 years old vines.L&S (Nov 2019)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

Sensual and enveloping, the 2018 Pouilly-Fuissé La Verchère Vieilles Vignes exhibits an inviting bouquet of orange blossom, peaches and fresh pastry. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and sumptuous, it's a generous, textural wine that's lively and expressive, and it's already drinking well. Drinking range: 2020 - 2027 Rating: 91 William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (Jun 2020)

(from 70+ year old vines located in Vergisson). Moderate wood influence frames the essence of apple and acacia blossom scents. The wood also shows up on the palate of the medium-bodied, succulent and delicious flavors that possess a sleek mouth feel while delivering sneaky good length on the ever-so-slightly warm finish. The wood isn’t subtle today and will likely need a few years to be completely integrated. Drinking range: 2024 - Rating: 89-92 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Jan 2020)

We still see Daniel Barraud when we visit but today his children Julien and Anaïs are at the helm here now. They have vineyards in Vergisson that are mostly high up under the famous rock (Vergisson lies between the two dramatic cliffs of the rocks of Solutré and Vergisson). The vineyards here are significantly higher than those of Fuissé, and are consequently later-ripening, and the wines often have a more solid structure - but they each have their own distinct characters, from the Puligny-like directness of the La Roche to the fat richness of the 'en Buland', via the mineral force of the Crays.

All the wines are made keeping close to the tenets of bio-dynamics - not for the sake of it - but because over the generations experience has taught them that these principles really are the best way forward - as such they only ever bottle on a waning moon. All the wines see some barrel ageing apart from the Chaintré, which is aged in foudre (2/3) and tank.

As Allen Meadows wrote on www.Burghound.com 'I have said this before, but I will say it again: no one makes better wine in the Mâconnais than Barraud. There are a few domaines that produce wines that are sometimes just as good, ... but none of them surpasses the quality he consistently produces. If you aren’t familiar with the wines, you owe it to yourself and your pocketbook to check them out.'

With the 2022 releases this 11 HA domaine is now officially certified organic. Formalising the way they have been working for years.

The Barrauds have four vineyards that have been upgraded to Premier Cru status: 'En France', 'Les Crays', 'Sur la Roche', and la Verchère, although this last one will change its name to 'La Maréchaude' but retaining the parcel name of Verchère too. It's one of those oddities of such classifications that the vineyard which has consistently produced the Barraud's best wine for all the years that we have known them, 'En Buland', is not classified Premier Cru status as it faces north - this is electric in 2022.

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STORAGE OPTIONS:

Wines bought en primeur are scheduled to arrive in the UK over the course of the next eighteen months. If you do not wish to take home delivery, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our primeurs team for more information.

While helpful, we do not require a firm commitment on delivery destination to process your primeur order at this stage. Our team will be in contact with you when your wines arrive in the UK to confirm the necessary delivery details.

BURGUNDY EN PRIMEUR FAQ

OFFER: All wines are offered subject to availability and final confirmation.

PRICING: All prices are quoted IN BOND ex-VAT, by the case size stated. Please double check that the desired case size does match what is being offered as wines are variously listed in threes, sixes, dozens, halves and larger formats.

DELIVERY - TIMING: This is a primeur offer so the wines are not yet physically available for delivery. They will be shipped to the UK over the next eighteen months. Generally, wines are shipped to your nominated location once the whole order has landed in our London City Bond account. If you require wines to be delivered by a certain date, please advise us at the time of ordering.

DELIVERY - FEES: In bond delivery to an Elephant Storage account (for more information see 'Storage Options' opposite) is free of charge. Transfer of wines to any third-party bond (i.e. not Elephant Storage) will incur an administration charge of £16.50 + VAT for all orders under £1,000. Please indicate if you would like the wine duty paid and a duty & VAT invoice will be raised once all the wines on your order are available for shipment. Once the relevant duty & VAT has been settled, we will ship the wines to your nominated address as per our normal duty paid Delivery Terms.

PAYMENT: All orders will be invoiced for immediate payment by cheque, cash, debit card or cleared funds to our account. We regret that we cannot accept credit cards for primeur orders. We reserve the right to apply a dunning charge of 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.