Tasted in Gevrey with Jean-Marie Fourrier, 14 November 2016.

Domaine Fourrier
7 Route de Dijon
21220 Gevrey-Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 34 33 99

Jean-Marie of the 2016s:
“Harvest was much later – 18 days later, the last 16s only went onto barrel last week.”

Jean-Marie of the 2015s:
“Our 2015 harvest started 10 September – later than many – the main reason was because I kept the leaves, many others pulled leaves in June – so my grapes were more shadowed. An unusual change for me was that I used a contractor to pick fruit, sacrificing the lunch tradition. They work from 0830 to 1430 so the grapes keep cool – so when I destem, the cool berries stay whole much easier. There was a couple of days with rain, but luckily for us the rain was in the afternoons!

“The ratio of skin to juice was important in 2015, normally I need ~10 cases of fruit per barrel, in 2015 we needed ~13 cases, because there was so much skin due to July’s heat. The potential for concentration and extraction was stunning – so conversely we did much less extraction.

“The challenge was to preserve the freshness of the vintage. So far less pigeage and not too much cold maceration – ‘cryoextraction.’

“It’s not 2009 or 2005, more like a blend of 9 and 10…”

I note that Jean-Marie’s packaging has changed – specifically the cases now show a directly printed vine in black with the domaine name – “yes my old ones were actually glued prints on the cardboard, and they weren’t always correctly glued and I didn’t like this waste.”

The bottles have been sealed with wax since the 2005 vintage, and Jean-Marc suggests that this compensates for small differences between corks. There is another advantage, in that you can see if the bottles have been maltreated, as the cork will break the wax if it pushes out. DIAM was trailed on some village wines in 2013, but Jean-Marie didn’t like the taste of the glue, so all is back to cork for the 2014s onward.

The wines…

As usual, Jean-Marie used no stems “I’ve a very gentle destemmer – slower than regular. Of-course otherwise you have to accept the difference in ripeness of the stems each year – it can be much more than for the grapes.”

All were brought into tank in the last 2 weeks. Malos started in December and were finished by March. Apart from one special cuvée, all these wines, like every year, see 20% new oak.

Each wine shows the same hand, but each wine is different from last. I would buy any wine here – fabulous quality.

2015 Morey St.Denis Clos Solon
Oh, wow, dark fruited but with a vibrant clarity, slowly adding some floral notes too. Super volume, modest tannin, excellent fruit-forward mid-palate flavour. Muscular yet a very supple wine – roundish but holds well. Delicious and somewhat easy flavours.

2015 Vougeot 1er Les Petits Vougeots
Planted between 1950-56.
High and deep notes, a different nose – more a ripe gooseberry, edged with flowers. Slowly growing a hint of tannin. Quite the the most beautiful and wide, lingering flavours. More elegant and wide but with a spine. Excellent.

2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Combe aux Moines
A little more mineral width, again with flowers. Big volume really a mouth-filler, yet without obvious density. Long slow waves of fading flavour. Just a little more reserved than the majority of the cave…

2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques Cuvée Centenaire
A cuvée made from vines only over 100 years old – ‘berries smaller than peas 2-3 mm’ – sold (almost) only in Asia – originally to establish the domaine name there. Here is also the highest amount of new oak used at the domaine – 50%
More depth and weight of aroma but with fine harmony. An extra presence. If you had been told you were being poured the griotte, you would believe. A burst of floral and some faint oak notes too. Certainly a special wine.