2007 Gevrey-Chambertin Cherbaudes 1er Cru

x000D The always-candid Jean-Marie Fourrier described 2008 as "the most difficult vintage of the last 15 years." The weather "was like what we had in the 1970s, where we were often just at the limit of phenolic maturity. In 2008, there was actually more variation of color than of grape sugars: some berries were red on one side and pink on the other. And you can't cut berries in half!" In the end, Fourrier threw out 20% to 30% of the less-colored fruit but noted that rot was not an issue due to the cold weather in September. Fourrier started picking on September 27 but noted that "there wasn't much change in the grapes since it was in the low 40s in the mornings and upper 50s in the afternoons." Grape sugars ranged from 11.2% to 11.5% and Fourrier told me he chaptalized between 0.6 and 1.0 degree. He went on: "It was important not to pull leaves too early, because leaves are the vines' solar panels. And it makes no sense to do it in July since that's too early for rot to appear. It's really a function of estates having employees around in July." The young 2008s were very difficult to taste here due to the long and difficult malos, which Fourrier attributed to the high levels of malic acidity and to the summer rains, which washed off the grapes' natural yeasts and bacteria. Fourrier had moved most of his wines to tanks in October, putting them in a fermentation room that he could heat. Most were nearly finished with their malos by the time of my visit in early November. Fourrier told me he hated his 2008s until about two weeks before my visit, and has found them especially hard to taste in recent months as they "appear to alternate between oxidative and reductive virtually every day."

Jean-Marie Fourrier, who described 2007 as a nice surprise, quoted the old saw of an earlier generation: "Early harvest: late harvest; late harvest; early harvest." In other words, in a growing season featuring a late harvest, it's better to pick relatively early, and vice-versa. In 2007, he picked late in an early-harvest year. After August 25, he told me, the weather turned sunny and warmer, and the last two weeks of ripening before he began harvesting on September 9 were critical for the pinot noir. But he added that those whose vines were affected by mildew had to pick quickly "because problems with foliage meant the end of photosynthesis and galloping rot." As the local lab told him that 90% of the tannins of 2007 were extractible, he did four pigeages per day early in the fermentation, and allowed the temperature to mount as high as 34oC. But he stressed that he did a lot of "mechanical" extraction (i.e., by hand), rather than a "chemical" extraction via a long cold soak. Fourrier prepared each sample by assembling wine from three casks. The malos were very slow to finish, and most of the barrels here still had a bit of malic acidity left in early November. "As long as the wines haven't finished their malos, they're not vulnerable to volatile acidity and we can delay adding sulfur," said Fourrier. With his new fermentation room, Fourrier can do a longer debourbage and thus begin his elevage with better lees. And he can press at a cooler cellar temperature, which he says helps to avoid the loss of aromatics as well as the risk of an early malolactic fermentation.