Rey En Carmentrant 2023: Pouilly-Fuissé under €25

It was the plainest bottle on the table. A grey-blue label with a faint diamond pattern, a silver capsule, the name Rey in chunky white capitals. Among fourteen Pouilly-Fuissés it was also the cheapest, and it refused to act like it.

This is the Rey Pouilly-Fuissé En Carmentrant 2023, made by Eve and Michel Rey in Vergisson. I tasted it in 2024 alongside thirteen other bottles for my Pouilly-Fuissé guide, where I wrote that this €24.99 bottle held its own against wines at double the money. I stand by that. It deserves more than a paragraph in a list of fourteen, though.

Tasting Note

Tasting Note

Appearance

Light yellow-gold.

Nose

Medium intensity. Red and green apple first, then acacia blossom and a touch of butterscotch. The wet-stone minerality arrives straight away. Give it air and ripe peach and nectarine follow.

Palate

Dry, medium-bodied, with refreshing acidity and a light creaminess. Peach and apple up front, flint underneath.

Finish

Medium length, clean.

Quality

An honest organic cuvée. No fuss, and on a par with bottles costing twice as much.

Three and a half hectares under the Vergisson rock

Eve and Michel Rey have farmed 3.5 hectares in Vergisson since 1988. The village sits beneath the limestone outcrop that, together with the Roche de Solutré, defines the Pouilly-Fuissé skyline. They prune in the local taille à queue du Mâconnais, a regional take on Guyot, and do the winter pruning and summer canopy work by hand. Organic certification came in 2021, so the 2023 is covered in full.

En Carmentrant is a small lesson in soil. According to the domaine it holds three types: a shallow soil over hard limestone packed with fossil oysters (the calcaires à Gryphées), a medium soil, and a sloping limestone soil formed from surface deposits. The plot faces east-west. Vergisson has vineyards above 400 metres, higher than the rest of the appellation, and in this glass the stone shows up before the fruit does.

Oak or steel? The sources disagree

Something doesn’t add up here, and I would rather say so. The domaine writes that its Pouilly-Fuissés are hand-picked, pressed as whole bunches and put into oak barrels for fermentation and roughly eleven months of ageing. Grandcru Wijnen, listing the 2024 of this cuvée, describes fermentation in stainless steel with wild yeasts and no oak at all.

My note doesn’t settle it. There is no toast or vanilla in it, just a light creaminess and that touch of butterscotch, which fits either story. If you choose white Burgundy by the “oaked or unoaked” box, that is annoying: you can’t be sure what you are buying. My advice is to buy on taste rather than on the spec sheet, because the taste is clear enough.

What €24.99 buys you

Pouilly-Fuissé has become expensive, and its famous name is part of the reason. The Verget from the same line-up cost €48.95 and was, at that point, the least drinkable wine of the fourteen. This Rey costs half that and delivers what the appellation promises: riper fruit than Chablis, with tension and stone still intact.

The price has barely moved in two years. Wijnadvies still lists the 2023 at €24.99 (September 2026). Grandcru Wijnen now has the 2024 on pre-order at €25.95.

Two caveats. The nose is only moderately expressive and needs air before the peach and nectarine turn up, so don’t pour it ice-cold from a freshly opened bottle. And the finish is medium: clean and precise, but it doesn’t linger the way the best premiers crus in the same tasting did. If length and layers are what you want from Pouilly-Fuissé, you will pay more for them elsewhere.

At the table, and in the cellar

Leaner Pouilly-Fuissé from Vergisson works with raw shellfish and ceviche. The fresh acidity and creamy edge also make it a good match for seared scallops or a herb-roasted chicken. Serve it cool rather than cold, around 10 to 12°C.

My note dates from 2024, when the wine was young. I haven’t tasted what two more years in bottle have done to it. Most village Pouilly-Fuissé drinks well between two and five years, and Grandcru Wijnen gives the 2024 a drinking window to 2032. I would open the 2023 over the next few years rather than bet on long ageing.

The verdict

The Rey Pouilly-Fuissé En Carmentrant 2023 doesn’t shout. It is bright, dry and stony, with enough fruit to keep things friendly. At €24.99 it is the Pouilly-Fuissé I would hand to someone who wants to learn the appellation without paying for the name. Buy two: one for the oysters, one to set beside a €45 bottle so you can see what the extra money does and doesn’t get you.

Producer

Domaine Eve & Michel Rey

Wine

Pouilly-Fuissé 'En Carmentrant'

Vintage

2023

Region

Pouilly-Fuissé (Vergisson), Burgundy

Grape

Chardonnay

Alcohol

Not listed by the importer

Vineyard

En Carmentrant, east-west, three soil types

Certification

Organic since 2021

Price

€24.99 (Wijnadvies, September 2026)

Importer

Wijnadvies; Grandcru Wijnen

Frequently asked questions

How much does the Rey Pouilly-Fuissé En Carmentrant cost?

€24.99 for the 2023 at Wijnadvies (September 2026). Grandcru Wijnen has the 2024 on pre-order at €25.95. It was the cheapest of the fourteen bottles I tasted for my guide.

Is the Rey En Carmentrant organic?

Yes. Domaine Eve & Michel Rey has been certified organic since 2021, according to the domaine itself, so the 2023 is fully covered.

Is this Pouilly-Fuissé oak-aged?

The sources contradict each other. The domaine describes about eleven months in oak barrels, while Grandcru Wijnen lists the 2024 as stainless steel with no oak. In the glass, oak doesn’t dominate: you get apple, peach and wet stone with a light creaminess.

Sources

• Domaine Eve & Michel Rey, the domaine: rey-bourgogne.com/le-domaine
• Domaine Eve & Michel Rey, Pouilly-Fuissé and En Carmentrant: rey-bourgogne.com/nos-appellations/pouilly-fuisse
• Wijnadvies, product page 2023: wijnadvies.nl
• Grandcru Wijnen, product page 2024: grandcruwijnen.nl
• VinoVonk, Pouilly-Fuissé guide: taste, price, 14 wines tasted: vinovonk.com

Wijnadvies and Grandcru Wijnen each sent a bottle as a press sample for my Pouilly-Fuissé guide. No payment was involved and the verdict is independent.