2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Combe Aux Moines 1er Cru

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.

Jean-Marie Fourrier, a flexible vigneron who adapts his vineyard work to the needs of each growing season, explained why 2006 could be so successful in the Cote de Nuits. "We had a very hot July, as in 1976," he began. "This stunted the size of the berries until the veraison. Luckily, heat at this stage of the season doesn't have an impact on acidity. And in fact the fruit kept all its acidity during the veraison. August was then cool and cloudy. Our fruit was not sensitive to rot due to the hard grape skins. There was more rain as you went south to the Maconnais." Fourrier, who does not believe in pulling leaves in mid-July, noted that this strategy would have been a disaster in 2006, as it would have exposed the fruit to the late July hailstorm. (He did his effeuillage in late August in 2007, 2006 and 2004.) There were actually three waves of storms, in mid-July, the beginning of August and mid-August, he went on. Vines planted along a north-south axis in Chambolle-Musigny were the least affected, while Griottes-Chambertin, Petite Chapelle and Clos de Beze were the worst hit by hail. Fourrier told me he did more pigeages than usual in 2006 to extract tannins, due to the tough skins and to the fact that he also has a high percentage of old vines. "A local lab said that in 2006, the grapes achieved 75% phenolic maturity but 50% extractability by what they call natural processes," he told me, "whereas in 2007 there was only 50% phenolic maturity but 90% extractability." Grape sugars in 2006 ranged from 12.8% to 13.4%, which Fourrier described as surprisingly high, and higher than those of 2005.