1999 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Champeaux 1er Cru

"With all the problems our region had with worms and rot in July of 2000, you could either spray or do nothing," explained Jean-Marie Fourrier. "If you did nothing, 30% to 50% of your fruit would be affected by rot, and then you'd have no choice but to vinify with a lot of sulfur. I used insecticide and anti-rot sprays, and the problem was gone in ten days. Still, the berries were big in 2000 due to the rain," noted Fourrier, "so even if the yield was lower than in '99 there was a higher ratio of juice to skins." Fourrier thus did a saignee for the first time, draining off anywhere from 5% to 8% of the juice prior to the fermentation. Fourrier 2000s were still aging on their original lees in November. "You needed clean grapes to do long lees aging," he noted.

"Yes, yields were high in 1999," admitted Jean-Marie Fourrier, "but Nature gave noble tannins and great pinot fruit; the wines are a bouquet of flowers and pure fruits." Besides, he added, pinot can be outstanding at a production level of 40 hectoliters per hectare. "Above that it up to Nature." Fourrier does not believe in saignee or other methods of concentrating the must: "I'd rather understand the wine than try to control it." Fourrier aged his '98s on their lees until the bottling in April of 2000. I was struck on this visit by the pure, complex aromatics of the Fourrier wines, and by the way the wines accurately reflect their various sites.