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Domaine Jean Fournier

So, here I am at the tasting room and winery in Marsannay, the penultimate day of my four-week marathon, waiting to taste Laurent Fournier’s wines... except Laurent is not here, but in some distant vineyard with a client. All my appointments have been going like clockwork up until this point. The secretary apologizes, convinced our rendezvous was scheduled two days later. I recheck my itinerary spreadsheet and to my horror, see that I had mistaken Fourrier for Fournier. I had arrived at the right time, at the wrong domaine, in the wrong appellation. Damn you, failing eyesight! I hurry down to Gevrey-Chambertin to find a bemused but forgiving Jean-Marie Fourrier and return to see Fournier the following day.

Now, the reason I was aghast at missing my visit is that Laurent Fournier is a dab hand at making great wines from modest terroirs at consumer-friendly prices. This is not an address to come to if you seek flashy Grand Crus or a blue-chip name. You come to Fournier if a) you seek wonderful Village Crus from around Marsannay b) you want to find out what a cuvée consisting entirely of millerandé bunches tastes like or c) you have misread Fourrier for Fournier.

Laurent himself is a young, very animated and passionate winemaker and I always find that reflected in his wines, which tend not to be shy and retiring, yet sidestep ostentation. They brim with vitality and energy, adeptly reflecting their respective terroirs. “We started the picking on September 3 or 4,” he told me. “This year for the first time we controlled the temperature of the bunches by using a container to store the fruit right after picking. We add no sulphur, just a little after the malolactic fermentation. We also use almost an equal amount of barrels (pièces) and larger 600-litre demi-muids. Generally I use around 50% whole bunch fruit. I chaptalised just some cuvées around half a degree.”

Laurent Fournier’s 2017s are expanded this year courtesy of some new fermage agreements such as Aloxe-Corton and Gevrey-Chambertin, not to mention a couple of cuvées such as his Marsannay Es Chezots that are due to come from a different source of vines than before. His 2017s convey wonderful, almost life-affirming fruit intensity, crisp tannins and brightness, like the set of Christmas lights suspended above the tasting table. Though he does not have a wide range of Premier or Grand Crus, there is immense variety within his portfolio that keeps you on your toes, whether it is his Pinot Blanc/Pinot Beurot blend or his Bourgogne Origine or his special selection of old vines on hard limestone soils that he bottles as Pur Pôt or those exclusively from millerandé bunches, P’tite Grumotte. As you might read from my notes, many of his wines come from old vine stock, up to 90 years old. This partly underpins their success. I believe Laurent Fournier himself pushes his cuvées to greater heights and, in my experience, ensures consistency year to year. I will finish with a small anecdote. I once opened his Bourgogne Le Chapitre for Christmas dinner to howls of protest from various family members expecting a grander label. Those protests immediately ceased once they actually tasted the wine.

From 2017 Burgundy: A Modern Classic (Jan 2019) by Neal Martin

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2017 Bourgogne Aligoté Champ Forey

Color: White

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Domaine Jean Fournier

2017 Bourgogne Aligoté Champ Forey

2017 Bourgogne Origine

2017 Marsannay Cuvée Saint Urbain

2017 Marsannay Clos du Roy Blanc

2017 Marsannay Les Longeroies Blanc

2017 Bourgogne Côte d’Or

2017 Marsannay Cuvée Saint Urbain

2017 Aloxe-Corton Village

2017 Fixin Les Petits Crais

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Village

2017 Marsannay Le Chapitre Vieilles Vignes

2017 Marsannay Clos du Roy

2017 Marsannay Les Longeroies

2017 Marsannay Es Chezots

2017 Côte de Nuits Village Croix Violette

2017 Marsannay "Trois Terres" Vieilles Vignes

2017 Pernand-Vergelesses Les Vergelesses 1er Cru

2017 Marsannay "P’tite Grumotte"

2017 Marsannay "Pur Pôt"

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