Pouilly-Fuissé
Burgundy's great southern white, grown beneath the limestone cliffs of Solutré and Vergisson.
- Wine village
- 1 h 10 from Beaune
- White wine
- 22 premiers crus
€700for a full-day wine tour plus two hours, from Beaune, up to 4 guests
At a glance
- Appellations
- Pouilly-Fuissé
- Grapes
- Chardonnay
Getting there
Private driver from Beaune: 1 h 10 by road (96 km), €260 one way for the whole car.
Coming by train or plane? Transfers from stations and airports →
About Pouilly-Fuissé
Pouilly-Fuissé covers four villages west of Mâcon: Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly, Vergisson and Chaintré. It is about 70 minutes south of Beaune. The vineyards roll below two striking limestone cliffs, the Roche de Solutré and the Roche de Vergisson, and make only white wine, from Chardonnay.
The wines
Pouilly-Fuissé is white only, from Chardonnay, on about 757 hectares, of which some 158 are premier cru. Vines face east or south-east at 200 to 300 metres. They grow on clay-limestone soils of Jurassic origin mixed with scree, below cliffs of hard fossil coral that resisted erosion. The wines tend to be richer and rounder than most Mâconnais whites, with ripe fruit, a firm mineral line and good ageing potential.
History
People have lived around the Roche de Solutré for at least 55,000 years. Excavations began at its foot in 1866, where a mass of horse bones lay exposed. Diggers found hearths, flint tools and bones of reindeer, horse, elephant, wolf and cave lion. The site proved so rich that it gave its name to a Stone Age culture, the Solutrean. Both Solutré and Vergisson are fossil coral reefs, formed about 160 million years ago in warm seas.
Chardonnay grew on the slopes of the hamlet of Pouilly by the 18th century, and Fuissé and Pouilly lie at the roots of the appellation, created in 1936. From the 1980s the Roche de Solutré became famous through President François Mitterrand's yearly climb. The area became a Grand Site de France in 2013. In 2020, ten years after growers first applied, 22 climats were classified as premiers crus, the first in the Mâconnais.
Well-known premiers crusLes Crays · Les Ménétrières · Vers Cras · Le Clos de Monsieur Noly · La Frérie · Sur la Roche
What to see
Roche de Solutré
The limestone cliff rises to 493 metres. A path climbs its gentle eastern side to the top, with wide views over the vineyards, the villages and the Saône plain.
Musée de Préhistoire de Solutré
Opened in 1987 at the foot of the rock, the museum sits under a planted dome and shows finds from the site, with an archaeological and botanical park.
Maison du Grand Site
The visitor centre of the Grand Site de France, with an interpretation space and a café. A good starting point for walks around Solutré and Vergisson.
Fuissé
The heart of the appellation, with a large 19th-century neo-Gothic church whose tower lacks its spire, an old wash-house and typical Mâconnais stone houses.
Tips for your visit
Plan a full day, with about 70 minutes each way. Climb or admire the Roche de Solutré, visit the museum, then taste in Fuissé. Saint-Véran and the Cité des Climats in Mâcon are close by.
Around here
What to combine with Pouilly-Fuissé on the same day, nearest first.
Guides about Pouilly-Fuissé
Questions
Pouilly-Fuissé is about 1 h 10 from Beaune by road (96 km). With a private driver, the trip from Beaune starts at €260 for the whole car, up to 4 guests.
Did you know? The famous tale of prehistoric hunters driving wild horses off the Roche de Solutré is not archaeology. It comes from a novel published in 1872 by Adrien Arcelin.
Sources
Pouilly-Fuissé with a private driver
Full-day wine tour plus two hours from Beaune: €700 for the car, up to 4 guests