harvest 2009 update from domaine fourrier

2.10.2009billn

A double update – from both Vicki and from Jean-Marie!

Many things have already been said on the web about the 2009 Vintage, and it is already being compared to the 05 vintage. We have attached some temperature and light, and rain charts which show the differences between the 2005 and 2009 which show that of course no vintage is the same. Jean-Marie actually sees it more as a marriage of the 99’s and 05’s. Still at the end of the day it is a vintage in it’s own right and a very exciting one too!

The grapes at harvest were beautifully small, so much so that some tiny ones which were no bigger than black currants fell through the grid of our sorting table and we recuperated them and put them in the vat! Already on the 2nd day in the vats the colour had changed to a bright pink, very unlike the last couple of years when we had to wait 2 or 3 days for this to happen. Fermentations, once they got going have been very quick and produced lots of heat, so we had to be very careful not to let them get too hot. Pigeage this year was not for the faint hearted, given the amount of mass solid compared to mass liquid. It has been known in the past few weeks for two very fit (strong) men to take around one hour to pigeage any given cuve. Even our porters in the vineyards were saying that they couldn’t remember a year where the cases were so heavy.

Finally, I can’t remember the last time I have seen JM smiling quite so much on the sorting table during a harvest! I have attached some photos to show you why!
Vicki Fourrier

The Growing season was absolutely perfect, with rain when we needed some and sun the rest of the time, the funny things is sometime you have nothing to say as all the conditions was right, the last month before picking was made of warm days and cool nights, so all the ingredients to have some great fruits.

Fruits at the harvest had the perfect size with lots of millerandage quite a lots of the berries had the size of Blackcurrant, so I insist on the fact that it’s not just the yield per hectare but also the ratio skin to juice which is more important for natural concentration.

The very unusual thing was how wild was the natural yeast to ferment this yeast, like if they’ve was as happy as the vigneron to find such great grapes!

All those tiny grapes released their sugar and more acidity later during the fermentations to give a last kick of extraction before the vats finished fermenting in a concert of Aromas.

After pressing our first vat today and tasting the first wine, I can just say that if we had a big smile on our face during the winemaking, tasting the result under the press has got me very excited indeed!

The only negative thing about 2009 is to put 2008 a bit to quickly in the shadow.
Jean-Marie Fourrier

Leave a Reply to SanderCancel reply

There are 3 responses to “harvest 2009 update from domaine fourrier”

  1. Mark Gough2nd October 2009 at 7:45 pmPermalinkReply

    Vicki’s comments mirror my experiences in Pernand !

    I can vividly recall the deep salmon pink colour of the juice from pigeage which was a talking point amongst the cuverie staff at Dubreuil-Fontaine.

    “Weird” that Vicki quotes Jean-Marie’s comments comparing 1999 & 2005 but small degree of satisfaction as I have been majorly criticised on wine-pages.com for simply reporting the same thing.

    Thanks Vicki, Jean-Marie & Bill. Back to my Gigondas 2001 Domaine de la Tourade – sorry it’s not a Burg 🙂

  2. Sander21st March 2010 at 10:09 pmPermalinkReply

    Looking forward to tasting the first 09’s!! Got one question:

    What website/software do you use for the weather/climate comparison?

    Cheers, Sander

  3. Spencer Mike7th September 2010 at 6:31 amPermalinkReply

    When i visited several winegrowers during the month August, most of them were complaining about 2009 because the lack of acidity. Most of them were comparing 2009 with 2003.

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