Domaine Fichet

What you will see

The tasting covers five ranges, from the classic Mâcon wines and the single-vineyard cuvées La Cra and La Fraisière to the crémants and limited editions such as Grande Craie, from a slope of 45 per cent planted for the first time. Pinot noir, gamay and aligoté grow on the south-east-facing slope, while chardonnay alone covers the chalky south-west slope. Visits to the vines and the cellar can be arranged.

History

The family has grown vines here for centuries, and some of its plots were already farmed by an ancestor in the Middle Ages. In 1976, during a wine crisis, Francis Fichet and his wife Christiane left the village cooperative to create their own estate, then about 11 hectares, three quarters of them gamay and pinot noir. In 1978 Francis made the first single-vineyard wine of the estate, the Mâcon-Igé Château London, one of the best-known lieux-dits of the Mâconnais.

His son Pierre-Yves joined him in 1988 and Olivier in 1990, and the estate grew to 30 hectares around Igé. In 2005 Olivier bought a 5-hectare chardonnay estate at Burgy, near Viré-Clessé, and in 2006 the domaine also became a négociant-winemaker so that it could make crus of the Mâconnais. Sparkling wine has been made here since 1978, and Crémant de Bourgogne since 1980. The estate has been certified High Environmental Value since 2019.