2010 St Veran En Faux

The 2010 Saint Veran En Faux comes from the south-facing slope on calcareous/marl soils, brick-coloured through iron oxidation. Aged for 10 months in barrel with minimal lees stirring, it has a wonderful bouquet of marmalade, apricot and papaya that is well-defined and beautifully integrated. The palate is quite exotic and yet controlled and not over-powering, offering lightly honeyed fruit that is counterbalanced by the keen citric thread. The finish is nicely composed, even if it does not quite possess the persistency that it deserves. The Burrier family can trace its genealogical roots back to the 1500s from Denis Burrier born circa 1469 to Frederic Burrier born in 1961. The family presently owns 42 hectares of vine including 22 hectares in Pouilly-Fuisse, seven hectares in Saint-Veran and others in Beaujolais. The white wines are vinified at Chateau de Beauregard, the reds over in Fleurie. Frederic is actually one of the leading advocates for classifying the region’s climats as Premier Crus and so unsurprisingly this domaine has been focusing upon single vineyard sites since the mid-1990s. These were generally excellent wines and I must confess that I am astonished that they are currently unavailable in the United States?at least for now. That ought to change given the quality of these well-crafted wines. No known US importer but available through “The Wine Society” in UK.