Chambolle-Musigny 'Les Fuees' (2010) Louis Jadot

Since it was founded in 1859, Maison Louis Jadot has acquired many different vineyards throughout the Cote d’Or and today holds one of the largest areas under vine and some of the most famous vineyards in the region. Jadot’s wines have, in recent vintages especially, reached a level of quality that cannot be ignored. Widely recognised as a leading producer, the wines are always in demand.

The village of Chambolle-Musigny plugs the gap north of Vougeot, and South of Morey St.Denis. Chambolle is regarded as the ‘Volnay of the Côte de Nuits’, but like the rest of Burgundy, that’s an over-simplification. Yes there can be a delicacy to the aromas of a good Chambolle, but there is considerable variation possible from the village’s 24 premier crus and 2 grand crus – truth be told, many of those premier crus are rather anonymous.

Les Fuées is, for Chambolle, a reasonable size premier cru vineyard (4.38 hectare) that forms the south-west border of the grand cru Bonnes-Mares. Fuées lies at about the same altitude as Bonnes-Mares; 280-300 meters. As you will note from that altitude range, there is not much of a gradient to those east-facing vines as they slope down to the road that joins Chambolle and Morey. Not only does Les Fuées form a border with Bonnes-Mares, it is a geological continuation with the same underlying oolitic limestone rock – similarly there are lots of hard stones in the soil too – there is just one obvious difference between the grand cru and its junior neighbour and you can probably make it out in the image at the head of the page – most of the vines are planted perpendicular to each other. Jules Lavalle’s book rated Fuées as a ‘Premier Cuvée’ together with Veroilles, Cras, Amoureuses and Bonnes-Mares – there was only one Tête de Cuvée – Musigny.

And the name? Les Fuées is a word of Burgundian origin, indicating ‘the vineyard surface that a man can hoe in one day’ – according to Marie-Hélène Landrieu-Lussigny.

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