2005 - Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru Vieille Vigne, Fourrier

Good deep red. More reticent on the nose than the Clos Saint-Jacques, as with the same wines in 2006: blueberry, black raspberry and musky animal nuances. Silky in texture but currently showing much less sweetness than the Clos Saint-Jacques. In fact, this is downright inscrutable today. Amazingly, my recorked bottle was still full of life eight days later, showing sweet tannins and a redder quality to its fruit. This one will need a good decade in the cellar.

Each of the Clos St.-Jacques’s five owners, Fourrier observes, owns a strip from top to bottom, and the resultant diversity of microclimate and soil structure he thinks in part accounts for the complexity and balance of the wines. If there is additional virtue to be discovered in official grand cru terroir, Fourrier opines, then in the case of his 2005 Griottes Chambertin, that consists not in weight or structure but in elegance and refinement. Subtly chalky (and chalk shards, not cherries, are the real origin of the name “Griotte”) yet juicily refreshing and with striking fresh black raspberry fruit purity, this beauty boasts a silky texture and a polished finish mingling licorice, cinnamon and clear, sweet fresh raspberry fruit. Its harmony and refinement make it almost irresistible even now, but no doubt a decade or more in the cellar will be rewarded, too. The articulate and opinionated Jean-Marie Fourrier staunchly believes in the inclusion of uncrushed fruit (to among other things prolong fermentation and, he claims, diminish the efficiency of alcoholic conversion); leaving the young wines on their lees (with high CO2 retention) eighteen months before bottling; employing a mere 20% of new barrels for all wines; and applying only minimal doses of sulfur. That the property from which he sources is all owned outright, and is largely in vines of over fifty years age planted by his father or grandfather before the days of clones certainly helps explain the consistently excellent quality at this address. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990

Jean-Marie Fourrier can never decide whether to serve this before or after the Clos St-Jacques. This plot is on calcareous soil in the south of the village. Rather hidden nose at present with a chalky, textured chew on the finish. This seems a bit light after the Clos St-Jacques. (JR)