2007 Domaine Fourrier, Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru, Clos Saint-Jacques Vieille Vigne 1x750ml

Robert Parker 92

Ripe red currant and raspberry, crushed stone, game, and damp bark-like woodsy notes emerge from the nose of Fourrier’s 2007 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos St.-Jacques that also displays bouillon-like saline, and meaty depth. Firmly tannic and impressively dense, this lacks the alluring floral dimension one expects from this site and gets so prominently in the 2008 rendition, but it certainly boasts formidable overall intensity and palate-staining berry fruit, meats, and minerals. I would give it a couple of years in bottle before revisiting and expect a dozen or more years of stamina. Jean-Claude Fourrier left no doubt that he viewed 2008 under the aspect of a return to times and conditions he thought his generation would never have to face. a oeThe most important determinant of quality in your range,a in 2008, he asserted, a oewas how willing you were to sacrifice on the sorting table.a He had only just bottled his 2008s when I tasted them at the end of February " with the exception of two wines that remained in tank, one a Combottes he had just warmed-up in a last ditch effort to push it across the lactic conversion line! a oeBy last October,a he explains, a oeI was facing the situation that 5 casks out of 7 were at 80% of malic acid and the others at 20%. So you have the choice either to heat your cellar, or to make the " for me, painful " decision to bring the wine back together into vat for promoting natural inoculation. Otherwise, I would have been waiting until April, and I can hardly even consider two full years in cask for my wines To be honest, I hated my ’08s for the first 14 months.a Primary fermentation also took place this year in large part through inoculation by utilizing whichever lots spontaneously kicked-in first as starters, because as Fourrier explained, a oeI’m not a fan of extended cold maceration, which means adding sulfur,a and with the ambient temperatures at which the 2008 fruit arrived in the press house, it could have taken a long time for many fermentations to commence. Potential alcohols were in the low to mid 11s, and boosted by at most a degree, lower total alcohol being one throwback to a oethe old daysa that Fournier appreciates, a oeexcept,a as he notes, that back a oein those days growers were mistakenly fixated on sugar, and chaptalization.a Fourrier finds his 2007s phenolically riper than his 2008s, but they were not showing an especially user-friendly side on the occasion when I tasted them, leading me to wonder where they’re headed, or whether they were experiencing a collective period of withdrawal. (For more about Fourrier’s always articulately and thoughtfully expressed methods " as well as about his vineyards " consult my reports in issues 170 and 186.) Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990 [David Schildknecht, 29/06/2010]

Anticipated maturity: 2010-2022

Vinous 94

Bright deep red with ruby highlights. Knockout nose combines dark raspberry, smoked meat, minerals and crushed rock. Tactile and chewy as a solid yet almost magically light on its feet, with terrific definition and lift to the palate-staining red berry, smoke and floral flavors. This superbly ripe wine boasts an outstanding core of dense, sappy fruit. Finishes with great length. [Stephen Tanzer, 03/01/2010]