DOMAINE JEAN FOURNIER

Laurent Fournier

Origins of the Domaine Jean Fournier dates to the reign of Louis 13th, in the early 17th century, making it one of the oldest estates of Marsannay. Nowadays, the 16.5 hectares family estate is managed by the dynamic young Laurent Fournier, son of Jean, who crafts wines with integrity in a non-interventionist style. In 2003 when Laurent took over the estate, he converted it to organic farming, and since 2008 it has been Ecocert-certified organic.

Half-century old vines can be found throughout Fournier’s vineyards, contributing to the immense purity and finesse these wines are known for. But these require very tedious work in the vineyards and pushes him in striving towards the best natural ways: uses of cow manure to increase soil fertility, improvement of water retention capacity and growth of microbial life. Tilling is done by horse in order to enhance healthy soil durability and stimulate deeper roots systems.

Harvest is now done entirely by hand, once the grapes arrive at the winery, they go through a sorting table. While Laurent experimented with a high percentage of whole clusters, he has now reduced to 50% whole bunches, putting the whole bunch in the bottom and the destemmed grapes on the top in order to have a more flexible cap. Maceration is done in concrete vats with first a cold maceration of 6 days, and temperature is monitored during the entire vatting process, using only natural yeast. After pressing, wines are aged in barrels (30% new oak) for one year then aged in used demi-muids for nine months or even more as Laurent has been pushing for longer ageing. Wines are adjusted with a small amount of SO2 before bottling.