I find it hard to open Fourrier’s bottles now – mainly it’s due to the capsules – or lack of capsules. Since the 2005 vintage the domaine has topped their bottles with shiny red wax, and that offers me two problems: one, the wax looks much too pretty to break; and two, wax normally shatters and makes a terrible mess!
Maybe Jean-Marie has a new formulation or the 24° of my kitchen had a softening effect, but a knife easily removed the layer covering the cork – and no shattering, no mess!

2005 Fourrier, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Goulots
Medium, medium-plus colour – not that deeply coloured for a 1er cru from this vintage. The nose starts with a characteristic note that makes you think of oak, but as I’ve slowly learned with Fourrier’s wines, it’s more about reduction, as it fades, in this case, in about 30 minutes without decanting. Slightly heavy and powdery fruit morphs to beautiful red berry notes over cherry – primary but very, very pretty – more time will give a pretty creme-brulee background. In the mouth this is soft and rather silky – you will only find the tannin with serious rolling around the mouth. There is decent density of dark fruit that slowly melts and becomes redder as the nose also develops. It’s slowly lingering on slightly emphasised acidity. Versus the impact of virtually every 2005 villages and higher Gevrey tasted in 2008, this is more mellow and understated – what a difference a year makes – there’s a little iron and minerals, but in particular this misses out on the ‘I’ word – impact. The style of Fourrier still makes this eminently drinkable, but I expect it was all the more impressive 12 months ago. Time for a long sleep…
Rebuy – Yes
PS As an after-thought, I often think that Jean-Marie Fourrier should have been born in Chambolle, the style of his wines are more ‘poster-child(ren)’ for that village. For Gevrey I’m often looking for that slightly harder edge – perhaps a hint of danger – but, good as the wines are, you don’t find it at this address.

This wine made such an impression when tasted about a year and a half ago that orders were placed in more than one bottle size! Here’s its first outing…
2006 Nicolas Potel, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Fuées
Medium, medium-plus colour. So effusive once the cork is popped, it’s like you’re back in the barrel cellar with forward red and black fruit that is softened at the edges with a sweet, faintly brulee’d note – primary but very gorgeous. In the mouth it has lost some of that barrel ‘padding’, but you have good intensity, equally good acidity and a reasonable amount of structure; the tannin is there and whilst velvety, has the merest trace of astringency. Slowly lingering, this is super – it’s perhaps more structured than when last tasted (and ordered!) and I’d recommend that you leave it in the cellar, but the fruit is gorgeous.
Rebuy – Yes

1997 Robert Arnoux, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Reignots
Starts with dark, slightly dirty oak and some forest floor – slowly the forest floor fades to leave the oak and a slight roast coffee ground plus much fainter, greener herbal note – there is a little spiciness, but this is interesting, rather than captivating . Some sweetness though it is ‘balanced’ by acidity that’s a little tart and a lick of slightly astringent tannin. The sweetness is associated with the fruit, mainly red shaded in this vintage and hinting at cream too. There’s enough here to make me interested to try other vintages, but this wine is a poster-child to ‘not quite there 1997’. I gave it a bit more of a chance and left the last third for day 3 (day 2 I was out!) – hints of red berry, less oak and more balance. Still far from worth the normal sticker price, but there is now some interest here. Another bottle will rest in the cellar until its 15th birthday or-so.
Rebuy – No
[Actually, everything is relative – looking at winesearcher on the green dollar icon above, you can buy this for £35 – put it in a decanter for 2+ hours and I think it’s maybe worth that!]

I though this would make a nice counter-point to the Clos St.Jacques.

This is a wine that has become an icon. I could buy it relatively easily up until the 2005 (that vintage was problematic, though I managed to get a couple), but since then, and despite buying the wine since ’99 I’ve been shut out through merchants. I will have to live with the modest few cases or-so of assorted Griottes in the cellar I suppose…

This is a classic example of Griotte, and I think there are many parallels between this and Les Amoureuses; it shows grand cru concentration and power, though it is still very approachable – yet, what it offers in style, it so often misses in intellect – this is an ‘easy’ and currently one-dimensional wine. Clearly it will get better and better with age, but by comparison, at this age I would already expect to see much more character in its next-door neighbour, Chapelle-Chambertin. Maybe I am personally becoming more mature, but with more producers and a lower average price in Chapelle, maybe it’s time for me to dispense with the pretty Griotte face and buy more from ‘next door’ – wines I have more chance to converse with!

If you wish to open one of Fourrier’s ‘top 2’ from this vintage, open and decant the Clos St.Jacques – for the moment at least, it offers far more interest.

2002 Fourrier, Griotte-Chambertin
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose opens with wide and forward and very, very young grapey fruit – it’s like a genie escaping from the bottle, but escape it does and what you are left with is a dense core of red fruit. The aromas remain solid and one-dimensional for the next 2 hours – no 02 CSJ sytyle reduction here. The palate is fatter and more concentrated than the CSJ and the balance is very good – the tannin is there only if you search it out. Like the nose, there is concentration but no complexity – it’s big and rounded and soft and somehow comforting, but it’s monosyllabic – typical young Griotte I suppose. Remaining bottles should wait at least until their 12th birthday I think, though 15+ is likely to be better.
Rebuy – Yes

2002 Fourrier, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
Medium ruby-red colour that’s just turning to offer a hint of mahogany at the rim. The nose starts with red fruit but also a dark, reductive undertow that initially makes one (wrongly) think to oak – it takes a little over 90 minutes (without decanting) to disappear. Over time the nose becomes lovely and transparent, just a little powdery and young though. From the start there is sweetness coupled to perfect acidity – it’s relatively narrow at the entry but there’s a tight core of concentration in the mid-palate – this also shows a dark, reductive flavour for as long as the same lasts on the nose. This is about transparency rather than impact and is exactly to the Fourrier ‘template’, if arguably not to the terrior. The finish a good one, if not really remarkable. Very tasty, indeed I would say its balancing of sweetness and acidity make it delicious.
Rebuy – Yes

This, and the previous wine illustrate the context of being a négoce – don’t expect the style of one bottle to be reflected in the next bottle. F.Esmonin is a domaine for sure, but they also buy in grand crus, e.g. Clos de Vougeot, the Bèze from last week (just lower down the page) and this Chambertin. This is certainly a very good wine, and not badly priced for what is in the glass, yet this is merely ‘good’ in the context of the appellation – or maybe my expectation – and behind the Bèze in terms of absolute quality – and, I think, potential.

2001 Frédéric Esminin, Chambertin
Medium, medium-plus colour – certainly paler than the Bèze. The nose starts with coffee/caramel oak and sweetly browning sugar – slowly it develops a very pretty red berry note. In the mouth there’s good intensity that is driven by great acidity – the acidity also helps push a very good length. Quite linear and not overtly powerful. The nose gets better and better – it becomes a gorgeous and complex melange of candied and jellied red fruits. It doesn’t appear to be a ‘great’ Chambertin as today I miss a punch and complexity in the mid-palate, but it’s a very lovely wine and certainly has the balance to age very well.
Rebuy – Yes

Comparisons are seldom perfect; this wine followed the ’98 Jadot Bèze which, as an adolescent, was quite savoury and certainly very ‘correct’ – I very-much enjoyed it – yet here is a wine that wears it’s youth on its shirt-collar, but still offers a controlled but compelling package that avoids the seamless, perfect interpretations of some modern high-fliers – that is to say, it shows character!

A slightly unfair choice I suppose, but if I could have only one of these bottles in the cellar, today I would take this over the Jadot, though I bet I can’t get any more for the £38 each that they cost!

2001 Frédéric Esmonin, Chambertin Clos de Bèze
A medium-plus, young, ruby-red colour. The nose is a beauty; superb depth, remnants of dark oak, wide notes of turned soil, baked bread and a slightly peppery dark fruit. Slowly but surely a soft red fruit note builds in the glass, the last drops showing a super-precise and penetrating redcurrant perfume. In the mouth this is full, velvety and still shows quite some oak flavour. There’s a little high-toned ‘mouth perfume’ and a very long bitter chocolate and oak finish. To dwell on the oak would be to ignore waves of fruit flavour that wash across the mid-palate, not to mention another burst of flavour before moving into the finish. Clearly a very young wine, but it just oozes class; that it was bought en-primeur for less than most premier crus of 2005-2007 makes me love it all the more. Really, really super.
Rebuy – Yes

Opened in the cellar about 3 hours before pouring and brought it up to the kitchen about 1 hour before pouring – looks like that was too soon!

1998 Louis Jadot, Chambertin Clos de Bèze
Medium, medium-plus ruby-red – no obvious age. The nose on first pour is reticent; a little bramble fruit but not much else. Without ever becoming effusive, the nose builds a core of dark fruit, slowly releasing finer red-fruit notes and even gives a hint of gingerbread. In the mouth it has excellent freshness, tempered by concentration and width without apparent weight. Just a faint fatness covers tannin that still offers a slight astringency. The length is impressive though hardly ‘impactful’. I left the wine for another hour. On return the wine is more open, mineral and showing much more depth of dark fruit on the nose. In the mouth there seems to be more concentration and intensity – I actually left the bottle in the refrigerator as the room was very warm – I think it made all the difference. It’s more together, more intense and the dark flavours infuse the tongue. I was wavering at first, but keep this wine below 18°C and you well get the return for your outlay. Impressive, yet it will be better in 5-10!
Rebuy – Yes