In glorious sunshine we took our coach on a short journey to the vineyards of the Mâconnais, starting at Domaine Corsin, in the village of Davayé. Giles Corsin makes wine from his own vines, and is also a négociant, making wine from bought in grapes. It’s a small operation with Giles, nephew Jeremy, a couple of workers and our host for the visit, Marine Coste who also handles sales and marketing.
Marine described the appalling 2021 season, when half the usual amount wine was made due to the ravages of frost and hail. This was hard to imagine in the hot sunshine, but we learned that this year a heatwave is a risk – the last serious one was in 2003, but generally warming temperatures mean that most harvests are happening 3-4 weeks earlier than 20 years ago. This year they expect to be harvesting towards the end of August.
As we toured the winery, we learned that 35 vineyard plots are managed, and harvested separately, and we counted 31 different stainless steel tanks that enable many plots to be matured individually. The estate isn’t certified biodynamic but Giles follows the lunar calendar in the winery (bottling on ‘plant days’ when sap is rising), and sustainable practices in the vineyards.
Above the pneumatic press we saw the large crates used at harvest – the emphasis is on getting wines quickly from vineyard to press, and the smaller crates we are more familiar with slow this down.
After pressing, wines are allowed to settle in big tanks for 24-36 hours, and then mature for different amounts of time – wine from the most prestigious plots may be matured in oak barrels, used up to six times. Marine described how different French forests can influence wine styles – those from Nevers to the north give more ‘punch’, those from Alliers to the south produce more rounded, softer wines. It was rather shocking to learn that because of the drastic drop in quantity, particularly of the highest quality wines, in 2021, Corsin had actually sold a number of their oak barrels (it’s not good for them to sit unused), and were now having to buy in new ones.
We quickly viewed the bottling room and were very interested to hear that for the fresher wines, drunk younger, Corsin are now using closures made from compressed residues from sugar cane – avoiding the risks of cork taint, which has been a problem in the past, but remaining sustainable.
We tasted seven of their wines in their airy tasting room, starting with three Saint-Vérans, of increasing age and complexity. We then worked through four Pouilly Fuissés. The 2018 ‘Aux Chailloux’ was delicious and deserves being able to claim Premier Cru from the 2020 vintage, thanks to a major change in wine law. Prior to 2020, there were no Premier Cru sites, and wines could only be deisgnated Mâcon, Mâcon-Villages, named Village wines eg Mâcon Lugny, or one of the five sub appellations: Viré Clessé, Pouilly Loché, Pouilly Vinzelles, Saint Véran and Pouilly Fuissé. This was because during the second world war, the area of France including and south of Mâcon was part of the Vichy administration. Areas to the north, including the famed areas of the Côte d’Or, were administered directly by the occupying German army, who in their wisdom decreed that any wine not designated Premier or Grand Cru could be requisitioned and sent to Germany. A surprising number of the famous Burgundian Crus we are familiar with today were designated in the 1940s! Pouilly Fuissé is the first appellation in Mâcon to be granted Premier Cru status for its best sites, of which Aux Chailloux is one.
Marine explained that if he could Giles would make all his wine in magnum, the larger sized bottle ensuring a slower maturation and wines fully evolving their potential. We compared two Pouilly Fuissés in magnum – the Vielles Vignes from 2016 and the Aux Chailloux from 2013. Both were beautiful, for me the Aux Chailloux, despite 2013 being a rather rainy cold year, had the edge of complexity of both flavours and textures.
Marine had been a wonderful host, hugely entertaining in a gentle, teasing way and we made heartfelt thank yous to her and Giles, who had joined us for some teasing, before we reboarded the bus to drive all of 5 minute back towards Mâcon, and Domaine Nadine Ferrand.
Nadine Ferrand started making wine after the death of her husband over 20 years ago. Previously the family had grown grapes but sold them to négociants. She now works with her daughter (also called Marine), who greeted us and talked briefly beside a recently planted vineyard which she had been working in at 6 
that morning! They own two hectares of their own vines and rent a further ten, across different areas of Mâcon, and it was very interesting to hear about how the relationship between owner and ‘tenant’ works.
Marine not only works in the vineyard, she also manages the very handsome cave in which we enjoyed a lovely tasting and lunch, she sells their wines to local restaurants, and then she goes home to her baby! We felt very lazy.
Our tasting covered a number of appellations. We started with a Mâcon Villages, and moved on to a Saint Véran. With our third wine, we learned that one of the impacts of the much reduced 2021 vintage is that Ferrand have left some of their wines in tank before bottling, and we tasted this in a 2020 Viré Clessé (which would normally have been bottled as the 2021 vintage was being brought in).
We tasted the 2019 Pouilly Fuissé ‘Prestige’, which from the following vintage will be a Premier Cru (though as it is a blend from three PC sites it will not have a named plot), which had delicious oaky notes. The Pouilly Fuissé Eclat d’Ammonite was, as its name suggests, a very minerally wine and a complete contrast to the Prestige as it had seen no oak at all. We also had a couple of Crémant de Bourgognes, which were very high quality, and our final wine was the Ambre – so called because of its deeper colour, reflecting grapes harvested 45 days later than normal (and so starting to raisinate on the vine) and 2 years in oak – a delicious ‘Vendages Tardives’ dry wine with very savoury character. Marine supplied some fabulous canapes for our lunch (she didn’t make them herself, which would have been beyond the call of duty, but whoever did make them knew what they were doing!). A relatively light lunch for one of Tim’s tours, so we returned on the coach to Mâcon plotting our evening’s eating and drinking.
