e are often approached by people looking for internships, who want experience from cellar work. I tell them there is nothing to do in our cellar. The work is done in the vineyards. 90 per cent of the work is done there. The remaining work in the cellar is basically done by itself.

Aurélie Cheveau talks about the importance of the work in the vineyards. Since she and her husband Nicolas took on the family domaine at the beginning of the millennium many changes have been made at Domaine Cheveau, but the knowledge about the vineyards has been kept intact over the generations.

– If you are not doing a good job in the vineyards, you are not going to have a good wine, she continues. One could say that we are the servants of the Burgundian terroir and particularly Pouilly-Fuissé. We are just here to assist the vines.

In terms of surface Domaine Cheveau has gone from eleven to 20 hectares over the past two decades. The Beaujolais is not far away from the village of Solutré-Pouilly, where the domaine is located, and it shows in the portfolio. Focus is on Pouilly-Fuissé and other Mâconnais wines, but there is also a large portion of Beaujolais wines.

– My father-in-law was born further east in the departement, but he worked here. My mother-in-law is from Saint-Amour. That explains why there is both red and white wine at the domaine today. Two wine making families were united.

– In 2015 Nicolas’ uncle in Saint-Amour, the brother of my mother-in-law, told us he was retiring and that he would leave the vineyards to us. He didn’t bottle anything, but his vineyards were well-placed. We hadn’t planned for this when we built the new winery, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up. It was a chance for us to have more red wine.

The arrival of Aurélie and Nicolas Cheveau has also meant that the wine of the domaine is no longer sold off in bulk. The wine is bottled at the domaine and there is now a total of 18 cuvées.

– At the time of my in-laws the wine sold well and they didn’t feel the need to bottle it themselves, explains Aurélie Cheveau. Nicolas felt the need for a change and I very much felt the same. I wanted to have my name on the labels. So that was how bottling at Domaine Cheveau came about.

Since quite recently Domaine Cheveau produces a white Beaujolais, Les Pouliches, from two vineyards in the communes of Chânes and Leynes. Technically it is a Beaujolais produced in the Mâconnais. This is where the Beaujolais-Villages and Beaujolais appellations spill over into the Mâconnais, the area around Saint-Vérand in the southwestern corner of the Mâconnais.

Quite a substantial part of the domaine is in the regional Mâcon appellation, where the name of the village is added as a suffix to Mâcon. At Domaine Cheveau there is Mâcon-Davayé, Mâcon-Fuissé and Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly. In all three cases the lieu-dit is also printed on the label.

– As the name Sur le Mont suggests our Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly is really at the top of the slope. It’s almost a mini Pouilly. It is a beautiful terroir with low yields.

– The Mâcon-Davayé, Les Belouzes, was planted in 2010. It’s clay and limestone, but quite a lot of clay. A bit deeper soil.

Moving up to the village appellations it is becoming a bit crowded. At Domaine Cheveau there are four village appellation Pouilly-Fuissé cuvées and five Pouilly-Fuissé premier crus today. Since 2020, when Pouilly-Fuissé received its premier crus, some cuvées have disappeared and some have been added.

– There used to be two Pouilly-Fuissé cuvées. One from young vines, made in wooden tanks, and one from vines older than 50 years, made with more oak. In the old vines cuvée there were several parcels included which later were upgraded to premier cru. There was Aux Bouthières, Vers Cras and Au Buchot (now re-named Pouilly according to the premier cru rules).

In addition to these three premier crus Domaine Cheveau also has Les Ménetrières and Aux Chailloux.

– Les Ménetrières is in Fuissé. It’s our only parcel of Pouilly-Fuissé there. All our other parcels are in Pouilly. We have separated all the parcels, but some are very small. Commercially it is complicated to only have 600 bottles of one cuvée.

– Today we only have one Pouilly cuvée which is a blend and that is the Les Vignes du Hameau. The others are vineyard specific bottlings. Aux Combes is exclusively for the American market. There is also Sur la Rochette and Vers la Croix.

Vers la Croix is the part of Aux Bouthières which did not achieve premier cru status.

– Together with Vers Cras, Les Vignes Blanches, Au Vignerais and La Maréchaude, Pouilly is one of the largest premier crus of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation. Au Buchot is at the top, on a very steep slope. Further down it’s more of a basin, well-protected. We also have parcels in Aux Morley’s and Au Clos, so we took all three for our Pouilly premier cru.

For the élevage all the premier crus go through the same process. From one harvest to the following one they stay in 600 litre barrels. Just before the harvest they are transferred to stainless steel tanks for another year.

– When we move them to tanks we bring the lees as well, says Aurélie Cheveau. It’s often the second winter that brings a lot of complexity to the wine. At the moment when the wine the lees are brought into the tanks everything is cloudy. The lees get a chance to feed the wine a second time.

© 2024 Ola Bergman