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Chambolle Musigny Les Gruenchers V.V. 2012 300cl

AOC Premier Cru | Côte de Nuits | Burgundy | France
CHF 2’107.95

All vintages

2012
Critics scores
93 Robert Parker
The 2012 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Gruenchers comes from vines planted back in 1928. It has a pointed raspberry and wild strawberry nose with delicate forest floor scents. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded tannins. Good body here, real substance with plenty of raspberry and cranberry notes filled with mineral on the finish. Stylistically similar to Ghislaine Barthod, this is a very fine Chambolle premier cru. Since yours truly screwed up his timetable and arrived promptly on the right time, the right day but the wrong week at Domaine Fourrier, it was the delightful Vicky Fourrier, Jean-Marie’s so-called “better half”, who escorted me around the 2012s. As I have written before, this address has a strong following in the UK and Europe, now also in the United States, although the exports consume such a percentage of production than Fourrier is perversely unknown in his home country. Jean-Marie’s wines have a loyal following for a reason: the quality of the wines. That comes from their treasure trove of old vine material, which is replaced through massal selection rather than clones, and Jean-Marie’s meticulous craftsmanship. “It was very warm in March, which got everything going quickly,” Vicky told me as we began tasting the 2012s directly from stainless steel vats. “Spring was cold which gave us coulure and so we already had some vines with no grapes. May was almost like summer, and then at flowering it was cold and wet, which caused millerandage that affected the old vines. But from then on, there was a high pressure of mildew and oidium, so you had to be spot on in the vineyard. But from end August it was sunny and the berries were far apart so there was no rot. There was nothing to do on the sorting table. But there were just tiny quantities, so much so that Jean-Claude, Jean-Marie’s father, was in tears as the crop came in from 21 September. We completed the harvest in 4½ days instead of seven and so we are about 50-60% down in production. For us, the malo-lactic fermentations were quite short this year and they were all finished by the end of June. The wines will be bottled mid-December.” This year, all cuvees have been raised in 20% new oak. As usual and as I expected, this was an impressive set of 2012s that followed the leitmotifs of the vintage, honing in on finesse rather than power. These were pure, feminine and dare I say, damn drinkable wines, many of which I could have eloped with there and then. These will be drinking earlier than say the 2010s from Jean-Marie Fourrier, but I suspect that they are deceptively long lived.
Producer
Domaine Fourrier
Jean-Marie Fourrier is the master vintner behind this domaine. He took over from his father Jean-Claude in 1994, after having spent time in both Oregon, working for Domaine Drouhin, and working for Henri Jayer. While Domaine Fourrier wines have long been well-received, Jean-Marie with his keen sense of perfectionism, took advantage of his time to better his production. And now today, his allocation list has long been filled. The domaine owns over 8.5 hectares of vines divided among Gevrey-Chambertin mostly with a few outlying parcels in Chambolle, Morey and Vougeot. While he does not follow biodynamics (because he feels it is too extreme), he is a natural grape grower, who highly values the respect of the soil. This philosophy carries forth in his winemaking and as a result, his bottles are some of the most finely tuned, balanced and elegant examples of Pinot Noir in all of Burgundy.