TN- 2006 Fourrier Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes

WINE TALK
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Man, I can’t keep my hands off these beauties. Everytime I try to let these age, I find myself violating yet another bottle. They’re just so damn GOOD! However, I have noticed they’ve clamped up a tad, so I do tend to pour these into a bottle-shaped decanter to let them breath somewhat for a few hours before pouring.

-2006 Fourrier Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes
At first, it smelled great, but was super tight on the palate. With some time in my Burgundy decanter, it really unfolded and showed what it could do. Gorgeous, just gorgeous, with crisp cherries and bright red flowers, really coating the palate in lovely aromas and ending with crunchy acidity and a long finish. As it breathed, an earthy spiciness emerged, really defining what it means to be from Gevrey Chambertin. Talk about terroir.

This was served alongside a standing rib roast, and was followed by the 2001 Penfolds Bin 390 Cab/Shiraz (TN- Wherein I like an Aussie wine! - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers). Quite a nice Saturday night.
Cheers! [berserker.gif]

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Thanks for the note Michel. I love these too, but am down to my last two. Hanging on to them for dear life now - so I transferred them to offsite storage and buried them deep inside my locker. Hoping to forget them for the next many year. Of course, a note like yours does not help the cause at all!!

Here are some notes from my recent bottles as points of comparison:

4/4/2010 rated 91 points: This is one solid wine. Unfortunately soiled by TCA, but still more than enough to enjoy, especially after an hour or so in a wide-based decanter. Strange thing this. Wet cardboard was a telltale sign of TCA, but Philip Shaw commented, very accurately, that the TCA seemed to float above the wine, not really distracting from its qualities. Pity. I could only imagine how good it would have been if it was a good bottling. Hope the next two bottles are alright. In any case, this had a typical Fourrier nose with pure cherries, fragrant flowers and a touch of roasted meat, along with little seams of spice and mineral running around the edges of the bouquet. Palate still had a fine, firm structure that suggested a 1er Cru rather than a village, lovely clean, pure, concentrated cherry fruit, some spice and a nice meaty inflection to it. Good length on the finish too, with fruit wed to spice - surprising, given the TCA. I had quite expected it to be truncated and bland. Crossing my fingers and hoping that the other bottles are fault-free.

20/9/2009 rated 91 points: An excellent village - this showed even better than the last bottle. Light coloured, with flacks of pink dancing around. Nose showed typical Fourrier high-toned notes, with strawberry, cranberries and a touch of cola - lovely it was too, especially as it was weighted down with very integrated scents of minerally earth, some meatiness and an umami touch. It was on the palate were the wine’s class really showed though. Clean acidity and really fine-boned but firm tannic structure cherries created a great frame for the purest strawberry and high-toned cherry fruit flavours, along with a dash of fresh-cut flowers and orange peel. Finish was very decent as well, showing more round acidity and a clean minerality, like sucking on wet stones. WIth lots of time and air, in showed pricks of wood spice. Still painfully young, the wine was primary, tight, reserved, and withdrew into a shell after an hour or so. Still, a lovely wine even today, with lots and lots of upside. Should hit its peak in 5-7 years time. The last two glasses of the bottle that we pumped and left overnight was lovely with Quanjude Roast Duck that Dad brought back from Beijing.


6/8/2009 rated 91 points: From 80 year-old vines. An excellent village - classy but understated. It took quite awhile to come around, more than two hours in a decanter followed by another half an hour in the glass before it really showed. When it did, it was really delicious. Deep purple colour. Nose was very high-toned, with lots of cool cherry fruits and perfumy violets, along with a wide seam of iron ore laden mineral and notes of briar and orange peel all underpinned with small whiffs of Gevrey meatiness. Typical Fourrier on the palate. Super-cool red fruits, great purity here, with more mineral and the same meaty low notes. Nice fresh acidity for a 2006, with none of the flab that shows up in more poorly made villages. A touch hollow on the midpalate at first, but that filled up with more pure red fruits - sweet cherries and cranberries - with plenty of concentration moving into a finish which showed silky fine tannins and a nice minerally structure. Excellent - have bought more.

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Paul, lovely notes, and in turn you’re making it hard for me to keep my hands off my remaining bottles… [swearing.gif] [wink.gif]