Domaine Fouassier: Wines
The portfolio of wines is 80% white, 15% red and 5% rosé. All the Fouassier parcels are vinified separately, in the same manner, in order to preserve and demonstrate the typicity of the soils. This gives them the potential for great transparency of terroir and a fascinating range of wines, but with 59 hectares of vines it does make for an extremely complicated range with many different cuvées. Picking is mostly by machine, since the 1982 vintage, perhaps not a huge surprise with nearly 60 hectares of vines to harvest. The only exception to the rule is the red Empreinte cuvée. As a general rule, the white grapes are delivered into a pneumatic press, for a slow pressing with sequential increases in pressure, a process which the Fouassier family believe is valuable in obtaining interesting aromatic and phenolic compounds from the pulp and skins. The juice thus obtained is directed by gravity flow into stainless steel or enamel cuves. Thereafter the fermentation is effected by the yeasts natually present on the grapes and in the winery. The élevage lasts a minimum of ten months before bottling, when the whites are filtered through cellulose.
As for the reds, the grapes are delivered direct into oak cuves and the temperature is brought down for a cold maceration which may last for several days, the aim being to extract colour and structure. The temperature is allowed to rise and the fermentation ensues, again effected by indigenous yeasts. The skins will be left in the wine to macerate for up to four weeks, with some pumping over and punching down of the cap, after which the wines will be run off into barrel for an élevage lasting usually between ten and fifteen months.
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