I opened this up a few nights ago and followed it over three days (vacuvin’ed and put in the fridge over night each night). It was full of great cut and precision in the mouth. Red fruits dominated the medium/light weight palate, which was supported by noticeable tannins on the finish. Truly delicious, if not terribly complex. I continue to be enamoured with each and every Fourrier I open.
I agree Rick, this is a great bottle. I have really liked all the 06 Fourriers I’ve had thus far. He seems to have done better than many in 07 as well. Other than the problematic 01’s, he’s one of my favorite producers in any vintage that I would consider buying.
Sounds nice rick. While being rather limited in the burgs I have tasted I do like most of the 06’s I have sampled.
Good to see you posting over here.
While I’m in the nascent stages with Burgs, Fourrier is a house I’ve yet to try.
Need to remedy that.
I’m a Fourrier fan too, and will be very interested to see the wines in their mature state. I’ve not heard much about supposedly problematic 01s recently, my extensive sampling having led me to feel that they are simply in the awkward phase currently afflicting many good 01s. I did have one alarming CSJ,but bad bottles are not uncommon with any wine.
Sorry to hear about the maligned '01 CSJ, Tom. I’ve had that wine a few times now and, simply put, it kicks butt when it’s “on.”
+1
I had Fourrier’s 06 Gevrey Chambertin Village recently. It was good, but had a lot of energy that almost got in the way of really enjoying the wine. It really affects the texture on the palate. I don’t quite understand this energy, but I’ve had it in some recent 06s and I don’t know if it the youth of the wine or the vintage.
I’ve had half bottles of the 2005 Clos Solon, fantastic juice.
Great wines from Jean-Marie, and he’s a super guy too.
I thought his 2006s really stood out at the Jan 08 ep tastings for being quite ripe, rich and succulent without being too heavy or extracted. I thought the latter was a problem for many domaines in this vintage: too much structure for the fruit. I should say I really care about balance and finesse too.
The Gevrey villages is a particularly good wine and not too hard to find: definitely worth checking out.
Danius,
Did you decant?
I think the 06 GC is excellent, but it wants time in the decanter. Per the new “Great Domaines of Burgundy” by Norman and Taylor, “As a result of this lack of manipulation young Fourrier wine often have noticeable levels of carbon dioxide and are well worth decanting before drinking.”
Cheers.
+1 on the need to decant any Fourrier to clear the dissolved CO2…
Jean-Marie Fourrier’s style complements and enhances the attributes of Chambolle-Musigny IMO. I am a particular fan of his C-M Gruenchers, which is brilliant in 2006 (not to mention 05 and 02 and 01 and 99). I love Fourrier’s Gevreys as well, but IMO there is a natural stylistic synergy between Fourrier and Chambolle. If I were the king of Burgundy, and if I could conjour up a spare plot of Les Amoureuses, I’d surely bestow it upon Ghislaine Barthod. If I could free up a second plot, Fourrier would be my man.
Danius,
Did you decant?
I think the 06 GC is excellent, but it wants time in the decanter. Per the new “Great Domaines of Burgundy” by Norman and Taylor, “As a result of this lack of manipulation young Fourrier wine often have noticeable levels of carbon dioxide and are well worth decanting before drinking.”
Cheers.
Brady,
No I didn’t…lack of proper planning I suppose. I was thinking about having the wine that evening since the morning, but only made the decision to do so when we were ready to eat dinner.
This is really useful information, since I couldn’t quite figure this out and didn’t realize it could be CO2. I just thought the wines were really aggressive in 2006. I guess I have to treat each vintage this way.
Much appreciated.
Danius
Agreed, Rick, what I didn’t mention is that this was the tenth bottle and the first not to be great. It was very flat, though.
Tom - You can color me jealous…10 bottles of '01 CSJ consumed is impressive!
Lew / Brady - I’m relatively against leaving pinot noir in a decanter unless it is for a group tasting where you may only get one snap-shot or taste of the wine. That said, a quick double decant and then back into the bottle for a few hours is not too uncommon in my house, though my preference is typically to just follow the wine for several hours or even a couple of days (as I did with this wine) to get a sense of how the wine wants to unfold.
I have the '06 GC and MSD on deck, and will report back with comparisons.
'01 CSJ is a problem wine. I know no one who has had a good bottle. Even on release it was strange.
Lyle, I had a fabulous bottle of the '01 CSJ in 2008, just all I could hope for, indeed my TN concludes with “grand cru experience tonight.” My bottle was fresh and youthful, and seemed ready to age another 10+ years. I am aware many have had problems, and have another bottle at hand to be opened soon.
Never tried the 2001 but the 2002 Fourrier CSJ was my first “wow” burgundy. I still remember exactly what it tasted like.
Lyle, owning a lot of the wine I’ve been drinking it since 04. In its youth it was possibly the richest ,fruitiest and creamiest burgundy I’ve ever drunk, to a fault really, but I was sure it would sort itself out after a long closed down period. The question is really whether that’s what’s happening now or whether there’s some other problem-personally I don’t see signs of VA as fatal, that can just be a phase no matter what science tells us. I know M. Fourrier has expressed concerns about the 01 corks but on the other hand he hasn’t had a bad bottle himself!
As much as I dislike to start my tenure here with this old humdinger, it is still a matter of some concern to me. Let me state that I too love the house-style chez Fourrier. I have been buying and cellaring their wines from Gevrey, Morey and Chambolle since the start of this century and they represent a fifth of my cellar. I have drunk and tasted from well over a hundred bottles over the years, but this 2001 issue has been enough reason for me to focus my buying elsewhere.
There is the possibility that the problems with the 2001’s are the result of Fourrier’s low/non-sulfur policy, which may now be brought to the fore by variable quality of the corks he used from 1999-2002. In that case, the future of the wines from that era is in jeopardy and what it will mean for the rest of the vintages I don’t care to speculate on.
I have discussed this with Tom and several others over at the other board, but I lack his conviction that the perceptible levels of VA in the 2001’s -and I have by now also had a CSJ '00 which suffered from it initially- are just a phase in their development. We will know in a few years, I guess.
