Description

Working with Mother Nature, intervening as little as possible in order to allow the vines, the terroir and the vintage to express themselves, is the basis of Jean Marie’s winemaking philosophy. To capture the individual, unique expression of terroir in his wines, he vinifies each vineyard separately, not only the premier and grand crus. A cold soak of 3 to 4 days prior to fermentation allows gentle extraction of color and aromatic phenols. Fourrier avoids the use of sulfur dioxide in his wines, preferring to use temperature, CO2 and lees contact to preserve them. No more than 20% new oak is used in order to preserve the purity of the fruit and the personality of each wine. “Oak is for slow breathing of the wine, not for taste,” Jean-Marie emphasizes. Additionally, older barrels exchange gases much more slowly, thereby naturally protecting the wine against oxidation. The malolactic fermentation is allowed to proceed at its own rate. Jean-Marie believes that the longer the malolactic takes to finish, the greater the aging potential of the wine. He likes to leave the wines on the fine lees until bottling which usually occurs 18 to 20 months after harvest. He bottles, in some cases straight from the cask, without fining or filtering the wines, preferring to allow the dissolved CO2 to remain in the wine as protection rather than risk the addition of SO2 in deference to “modern market requirements”. What ends up in the glass is a pure expression of terroir with as little interference as possible by the winemaker. Domaine Fourrier’s wines possess superb balance, enchanting elegance, finesse and complexity.