Bad Fourrier served badly

[Dav1dZ]

@Keith Levenberg

What Tom said. If Meadows’ note is on a barrel sample and not a finished wine, you’d expect a vast difference–this is true with all wines but especially true with wines living in toasty new oak like Sylvie Esmonin’s which won’t stop doing its work on the wine just because a critic tasted a sample and scored it.

Oak doesn’t turn pure, cool, airy red fruit to an inky black, purple and blue fruited monster. I think he just made a mistake - and I have to say, I see that a lot with Meadows’ reviews. He has a lot of knowledge, but I think his palate isn’t so good.

[Jay_Miller]

The S. Esmonin Burgundies begain upping the new oak more than I like as of the 1999 vintage. Personally I blame her marriage into the Laurent family. Earlier wines were gorgeous.

[Nathan_V]

@Jay Miller

The S. Esmonin Burgundies begain upping the new oak more than I like as of the 1999 vintage. Personally I blame her marriage into the Laurent family. Earlier wines were gorgeous.

Well, I’m not sure I agree. She has gone from 50% to 75% and now 100% new wood, but the barrels are amazing. They are the Laurent “super barrels” and have the thickest staves I’ve ever seen. I also think the staves are air dried for more than 3 years, but that is from memory.

A few weeks ago I opened a 2008 CSJ. It was totally uninteresting that evening, by turns stemmy, oaky, and truculent. I recanted it back in the bottle then proceeded to forget about it for a week. Upon opening, it was stony, airy, very Gevrey, and lovely.

Oak doesn’t bother me as much as it does other people (I’m a huge Rougeard fan, as you know), with the caveat (and this is a big one) that barrels are top quality. Chances are, if you’ve heard of the tonnelier, they’re not. Those “super barrels” are made by some artisan cooper as are the barrels that the Foucaults uses for the Bourg.

Anyway, I guess I’m a bit of an apologist for this wine and not just because Joe was a good friend and I miss him, but because I think that the Esmonin wines will come around and they represent a vin de garde style that is very different from Fourrier that also expresses CSJ. How lucky are we to have five solid stewards of such a great terroir?

I haven’t had the 2009, but I would expect that the wine would be an even more extreme version of the 2008.

I agree with some others about Meadows, my impressions and his notes are often at odds even in bottled wines. Tanzer’s notes have more closely modeled my experience.

[Jay_Miller]

@Nathan V.

@Jay Miller

The S. Esmonin Burgundies begain upping the new oak more than I like as of the 1999 vintage. Personally I blame her marriage into the Laurent family. Earlier wines were gorgeous.

Well, I’m not sure I agree. She has gone from 50% to 75% and now 100% new wood, but the barrels are amazing. They are the Laurent “super barrels” and have the thickest staves I’ve ever seen. I also think the staves are air dried for more than 3 years, but that is from memory.

A few weeks ago I opened a 2008 CSJ. It was totally uninteresting that evening, but turns stemmy, oaky, and truculent. I recanted it back in the bottle then proceeded to forget about it for a week. Upon opening, it was stony, airy, very Gevrey, and lovely.

Oak doesn’t bother me as much as it does other people (I’m a huge Rougeard fan, as you know), with the caveat (and this is a big one) that barrels are top quality. Chances are, if you’ve heard of the tonnelier, they’re not. Those “super barrels” are made by some artisan cooper as are the barrels that the Foucaults uses for the Bourg.

Anyway, I guess I’m a bit of an apologist for this wine and not just because Joe was a good friend and I miss him, but because I think that the Esmonin wines will come around and they represent a vin de garde style that is very different from Fourrier that also expresses CSJ. How lucky are we to have five solid stewards of such a great terroir?

I haven’t had the 2009, but I would expect that the wine would be an even more extreme version of the 2008.

I agree with some others about Meadows, my impressions and his notes are often at odds even in bottled wines. Tanzer’s notes have more closely modeled my experience.

Interesting. I certainly haven’t either followed any of the wines over several days or had a any of the later wines with a lot of age and I respect your Burgundy palate.