Rene Bouvier, Pierre Damoy, Jean-Marie Fourrier
Gevrey was one of those villages along the N74 that was badly affected by the big frost of the 19 December 2009. A lot of potential fruit and many vines were lost. But while that represents a serious loss of production to both producers and Burgundy lovers, our investigations reveal it certainly hasn't done the quality of the resulting wines any harm. With small quantities of small berries on the vines, there's built-in rot protection from the increased ventilation and it's much easier for the vines to ripen their fruit. So the berries arrived in the cellars with overall good physiological ripeness and dense pulp as well as thick skins. The best producers recognised this and for the most part adjusted their extraction accordingly.
Our first appointment of the week was with Jean-Marie Fourrier. What a start! Jim and I were rendered speechless by the wines here - or rather they were all we could talk about. Their texture is so fine that to start with we were wondering where the tannins were until they had passed more smoothly than a lighter-than-air Rolls Royce. There's never enough of Jean-Marie's wine to go around, and this year there's over 40% less than last year. We're doing our best to divide what little we have amongst loyal followers.
Our first visit to see Pierre Damoy was to taste the 2009 wines from cask. We were impressed then with a very memorable evening visit and nothing has changed our views with the 2010s. The current Pierre in charge has transformed the fortunes of the domaine since the early nineties and has crafted a spectacular set of wines again. 2000 Clos de Beze remains one colleague's wine of 2011.
We stand guilt of shamefully taking Domaine Rene Bouvier completely for granted in previous years and not giving it the push its wines completely deserve. It's an unromantic place to visit - a brand new facility on an industrial estate is not the stuff of dreams - unless you are desperate to have control over your fruit and make light-touch and elegant wines, in which case you'll happily forego black mould and cobwebs in your hair, Lafarge-style. Bernard has ratcheted up the quality of the wines here and converting to organic viticulture is part of that process. /CW
Tomorrow
Morey-St-Denis
Thursday 26 January
Burgundy tasting 12-8pm, £25 per person inc VAT (redeemable against 2010 Burgundy en primeur purchases over £500
