2010 Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin Vieille Vigne- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin (5/13/2013)
EXPLOSIVE nose or pure, ripe (but fresh) cherry fruit currently overpowering the more subtle earth, woodspice, and floral aromas. Smooth attack. Lovely texture.The fruit is darker (black cherry) on the palate and earthy/minerality is easier to discern. Good acidity. Balanced. Everything seems in place to carry this wine forward. For now, it is very easy to drink…but I think my palate will prefer this when the fruit is less primary.
Frustrated by my lack of experience tonight. I’d like to know with a bit more certainty how this will age.
Thanks for the note Kim. It certainly did hurt to shell out almost $70 for a wine that was once $40 just a few years ago but it sounds like I will be rewarded.
Kim - thanks very much for the notes. Despite your warnings I am tempted to open one of mine very soon, just to catch this level of youthful exuberance.
I had the Chambolle recently and had a similar reaction. It is beautiful and pure, dominated at this stage by its fruit. I have had good luck with my early Y2K’s. But at this stage, given the going rate, I get more from less exalted terroir. My initial exclamation was, who put the Foillard in my Fourrier…
Cliff - I’m really pleased to see you shared my reaction. I was really surprised by what I was experiencing. As David mentioned, I brought up Fourrier and Lapierre in our discussion because there was something about the expression of fruit that made me think of their 09’s.
Is Fourrier’s “intra cellular fermentation” carbonic maceration…a form of it…If different…I’d like to know how it differs…
Then, I’d like to know if wines made in this manner age differently…
For those in the know, has Fourrier always made wine in this way since he took over? I certainly see a different level of purity in the wines from the bottlings I have tried from '97-'99, either on release or lately.
I’ve been following them since the '98 vintage (excluding the Griottes and the Clos St. Jacques) and the 2010 Chambolle Cliff mentions was not typical of what I recall for other wines on release. To some extent it suffered from being next to some older wines but despite its typical purity it seemed a bit more “obvious” for lack of a better word than what I think of in relation to their wines. Personally I put it down to youthful exuberance in an unusually vibrant vintage and expect it to settle down a bit with time.
This sounds right to me. I’ve been following since about 2000, and this struck me as the most fruit-forward showing I’ve experienced. Others will fill in the details better than I can. Certainly the style has evolved over that time, but I don’t think there have been radical changes in the past couple of vintages. I think the fruit will settle down and we’ll see some more definition soon. Having said that, this is not the first time I have remarked on the textural similarity between Fourrier and Foillard.
I’ve had wines from the late 1990’s on (with some back-filling) recently, and those have held up beautifully. Nonetheless, I can’t help wonder about trading long term development for up front appeal.
