1996 Gevrey-Chambertin Cherbaudes 1er Cru

Jean-Marie Fourrier, who took over at his family estate with the 1994 vintage, is wise beyond his years. Rather than make "new-fashioned" Burgundies, this young winemaker, who worked with Henri Jayer in 1988 while at enology school, wants to be traditional: "I am looking for the quality of 30 or 40 years ago." While Fourrier is open to the new techniques and equipment available to his colleagues today, it is also clear that he will not adopt a method without understanding exactly why it is used and what it accomplishes. x000D x000D x000D Fourrier benefits from working with a high percentage of 50 to 70 year old vines, all selection massale. He believes in severe pruning, but does no green harvesting and does not use a table de trie. Fourrier prefers to eliminate the less than ideal grapes on the vines rather than in the cuverie The reason for this is simple, says Fourrier, using this comparison: "If a mushroom collector brings in a single bad mushroom, the spores contaminate the rest, and the pharmacist makes him throw out the entire lot." The malolactic fermentations take place late in this cold cellar: the '97s had not yet been racked, and probably will not be until shortly before the April bottling, while the '96s were not racked until February of '98 and were bottled last August. Just 20% new oak is used to age the wines. "With the old barrels, the pores of the wood are more closed," Fourrier explains. "There more CO2 retained, and less volatile acidity. So it is possible to use less sulfur." Fourrier is seeking wines with more body and roundness than those his father made. Among the key changes instituted in recent years: earlier harvesting, less handling (pumping, racking) of the wine, and somewhat earlier bottling to retain fresh fruit. Fourrier also discontinued filtering his wines after a 1993 visit to Oregon. This is now another top notch source of Gevrey wines, and an estate to watch.