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90 WA.
"An attractive bouquet of plums, cassis and earthy forest floor introduces the 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes, a medium to full-bodied, ample and satiny wine, with melting tannins, tangy acids and good concentration, concluding with a long finish. Elegant and pure, it exemplifies Fourrier's style. ‘Grannies don't run marathons’, jokes Jean-Marie Fourrier, as he explains that his domaine's enviably high average vine age helped preclude the excess yields that younger, more vigorous plants were inclined to set in the generous 2017 vintage. His good humor is understandable, for he has produced a fine portfolio this year, combining quantity and quality. Supple, satiny and succulent, Fourrier's 2017s are endowed with an immense charm that will lend them almost immediate drinkability, yet they're sufficiently balanced that it's easy to envisage sustained evolution in bottle. Readers will be familiar with the domaine's modus operandi, the rudiments being entirely destemmed berries, retained intact to the maximum; gentle extraction and élevage without racking in only modest percentages of new oak, principally from Tonnellerie Cadus—which tends to lend merely a slight sheen to the wines' already bright fruit tones; and bottling with a comparatively elevated proportion of dissolved carbon dioxide. Revisiting a selection of Fourrier's 2016s from bottle, I found them similarly superb, and though Fourrier's style never yields structural asperity, the wines will reward time in the cellar to a greater degree than the precocious 2017s." Wine Advocate Interim, Jan 2019 |