..for your enjoyment from helmut's diaries...

                 Pouilly Fuisse

Chablis for many guests means American bulk wine produced under the name of Chablis. Meursault is known to some diners, but mention Pouilly Fuisse and there is always someone who giggles or smiles just about the name.

POUILLY FUISSE
    I had never sold much of the Pouilly Fuisse waiting on tables in Germany, Spain or in South Africa. There it was the Chablis or the Meursault which usually was ordered with oysters or shell fish. Here in California it turns out to be different. Chablis for many guests means American bulk wine produced under the name of Chablis. Meursault is known to some diners, but mention Pouilly Fuisse and there is always someone who giggles or smiles just about the name.
    At Triples where I work these days we list all wines by the grape used, therefor under Chardonnay one finds both California and French made wines. Guests ask me, "Which one is more dry?" "The French Chardonnays!" Is my answer.
    Time after time I have customers pointing at the Pouilly Fuisse and asking, "How is this one and where is it from?" I gladly explain, "The Pouilly Fuisse generally speaking it is a white Burgundy, more precise this wine is from a hilly area the Maconaise. That's north of Beaujolais and south of the Cote d'Or." By this time few guests are listening, most are trying to pronounce the two words Pouilly Fuisse their own way. As the guests laugh and joke about their way of interpreting the name I stop with my explanation right there. For the ones who want to know more about the wine's origin I add: "The Pouilly Fuisse is one of the best wines from the Maconaise. Comparable to such world famous white Burgundies like Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chablis the Pouilly Fuisse is certainly a fine dry French Chardonnay."
    Still, there is for sure more to it. People who have never before heard the name or tried any Pouilly Fuisse are laughing by reading the name. Often guests exchange the capital letters. I  have heard some ladies say most awesome wordings which made their table partners blush. These made me wonder about these ladies' motivations. I know it is a part of freedom of speech. American women are not too shy to express their viewpoint whatever it might be. Nonetheless, any label which causes as much fun as the Pouilly Fuisse sells itself.
    It's common that the host of a party says: "Bring me this Pouilly I have to try it!" Asked by anyone at his table why he orders this Fuissy wine the answer often is: "Any wine which gets everybody worked up like this one deserves to be further investigated." And he is right, it is the only wine I know off, which causes people to smile, to act silly and make wicked jokes without having laid eyes on to the bottle itself. All this intoxicated behavior occurs long before they have actually sipped any of the precious French white wine.
    Coincident, word-games or word-recognition whatever it might be, I am nowadays used to the reactions caused by the mispronunciations of the name Pouilly Fuisse.

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