The 1998 Pouilly-Fuisse Clos de M. Noly Vieilles Vignes has a medium amber color and the nose of a sweet wine (though it is completely dry). Fruitcake, cookie dough, spices, syrupy walnuts, cherries, and honeyed almonds can be found in its complex aromatics. This massively expansive, beautifully balanced, and pure wine coats the taster’s palate with honey, assorted toasted nuts, and syrupy minerals. It is hugely complex, concentrated, and simply fascinating. Mr. Valette provided me with the opportunity to also taste a bottle of this wine that had been opened three days before. With 72 hours of air, the wine was even fatter, richer, and juicier. French wine lovers are well aware that 2002 was a particularly difficult vintage in the south of France due to incessant rains, culminating in massive deluges at harvest time, yet to the north, in the Cote d’Or, there were almost drought-like conditions for most of the growing season, with the exception of a rainy period in late August/early September. What appears to be little-known, however, is that the demarcation line between the dry north and the wet south bisected the Maconnais. As Gerard Valette noted, “To make good wines, we needed to do a severe sort at harvest because we had gotten our fair share of the rains of the south, and therefore needed to cope with some rot.” Importer: Kysela Pere et Fils, Fran Kysela, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722-9228

The 1994 Pouilly-Fuisse Clos Monsieur Noly Vieilles Vignes (25 cases for the American market) could be described as the Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne of the Maconnais. Made from yields of 18 hectoliters per hectare (just over one ton of fruit per acre), this awesomely endowed, massive yet refreshing Chardonnay possesses extraordinary intensity and precision, an unctuous texture, a leesy, earthy, complex set of aromatics (honeyed nectarines and pineapples galore), and marvelous flavor concentration and length. This extraordinary wine performed as splendidly in this recent tasting as it did in January in Paris. It is an exquisite Chardonnay, as well as a new reference point for what can be achieved in the Maconnais. Importer: Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester, VA; tel (540) 888-7939

Flavorful, fresh and supple, offering lemon, honey, pear and spice notes. Medium in body. Drink now. -