Château des Rontets 'Pierrefolle' Pouilly Fuissé 2019

Château des Rontets has been owned by the Gazeau-Varambon family since 1850 and is located on top of a hill overlooking the village of Fuisse. All the vines, except for one plot (Pierrefolle), surround the house in a clos. Fabio Montrasi was born in Milano where he met his wife Claire Gazeau and where the two worked, for a number of years, as architects before deciding to exchange a city life for a farmer's existence. They moved back to Claire's familial home and began work on the vineyards, slowly returning the soil to its natural state. The terroir at Rontets is comprised of a mixture of clay and limestone with fairly pebbly subsoil which favors good drainage.

The Pouilly-Fuissé cuvée Pierrefolle is made from the only vineyard situated outside the Clos at Rontets: this plot is set only 500 meters south and is warmer because of its plain East exposure and the sheltered position from the North wind. This climat has older geological origins, preceding the Jurassic era: it sits on a granitic bedrock and its soil has no clay or limestone. This is why at the beginning of the 1970s it was planted using the Riparia rootstock, which has low vigor and guarantees limited yields and very good quality grapes. All these characteristics produce wines with lower acid, compared to those produced within our Clos. Although larger and somehow more generous, Pierrefolle is always sustained by a precise mineral expression and citrus aromatic note.