2014 Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru 'Champeaux' (MAGNUM)

*This bottle includes a cracked wax capsule.

The Domaine Fourrier owns almost exclusively old-vine plots; Jean-Marie's focus is not only vine health, but vine age - any vine short of 30 years of age does not get its fruit added to the Domaine wines, and the overall age averages between 50 and 70 years across all vineyards. These naturally-developed vines are only pruned back in the winter time, allowing them to do their own work without any removal of clusters through the growing season. The yearly quest is simple: he wants the full expression of his vineyards in each bottle.

As with his mentor Jayer, Fourrier performs a 4-5 day cold-soak and de-stems (almost all of) his grapes. He's dogmatic about preserving freshness and flavor in his wines, so no more than 20% new oak is used across all cuvées, and when transporting the grapes, the utmost caution is used to keep the grapes' skins intact. This also allows minimal use of sulfur. The only method of extraction is pigeage, a maximum of 2-4 times per day. Pressing cycles are very gentle, and the juice sent to tank for a 24-hour settling period to remove the heaviest sediment, before being moved via gravity to barrel where it will stay for 12 months on the lees. In the same vein, there is no racking; as Fourrier explains, "We like to keep high levels of carbonic gas which allows minimal use of sulfur - the CO2 acts as a natural protectant which would need to be replaced by sulfur if racked. Also, one of the micro proteins of the dead yeast is glycerol which during the malo-lactic fermentation is suspended into the wine and fixes, giving a lovely fatness and roundness in mouth." The best cuvées are often bottled right from the cask; the remainder will be blended from the multiple barrels into cask for a few months prior to a February bottling, which is done without fining or filtering.