Champagne Veuve Fourny & Fils, Vertus

Emmanuel Fourny (pictured) and his brother Charles-Henry are fifth-generation vignerons, and have been at the helm of this Côte des Blancs property since 1993. The house was created as Albert Fourny by their grandfather in the 1930s, and changed its name to Veuve A. Fourny in the 1950s following Albert’s death. Today it is known simply as Veuve Fourny & Fils.

I consider Veuve Fourny to be grower champagne, even though they’ve been registered as an NM since 1979, which allows them to buy grapes from other family members and friends. An important thing to note is that all of their parcels, whether estate or négoce, are treated with the same care in viticulture and vinification: the Fournys work closely with their friends and family to ensure that their viticulture is of the same high standard as the house, advising on such things as pruning, cover crops and yields, and all parcels are vinified separately to preserve their identity of terroir. In addition, they buy only from Vertus—it’s important to the Fournys that every bottle of Veuve Fourny champagne is pure, single-cru wine. “We want to be specialists of Vertus,” says Emmanuel Fourny. Today they own 8.5 hectares of vines spread over 40 parcels in the village, which account for about 70 percent of their needs; their purchased parcels total another four hectares or so.

Half of the estate’s vines are located in the lieu-dit of Monts Ferrés, on the Mesnil side of the village, and this forms the backbone for the Brut Blanc de Blancs. Blended from three vintages and dosed at just five grams per liter, this brut’s lively, racy energy and prominent minerality give away its origins close to Le Mesnil. The same wine is released without dosage as the Brut Nature—I like the pronounced, saline expression of minerality and the zesty crispness here, and it would be a terrific accompaniment to oysters or other raw shellfish, but it’s a less complex wine than the Brut.

Vertus is unusual in the Côte des Blancs in that there is some pinot noir grown here, and in fact, in the past it was more famous for pinot noir than for chardonnay. Fourny’s Grande Réserve is blended from 80 percent chardonnay and 20 percent pinot noir, and while it is also blended from three vintages, there is a higher proportion (40%) of reserve wine here. In addition, about 10 percent of the wines for this cuvée are aged in oak barriques. It’s a richer, more ample wine than the Blanc de Blancs, sourced primarily from areas in Vertus with more clay. The Cuvée R Extra Brut is named for the Fournys’ father Roger, who preferred to use a little pinot in his blends—it’s a blend of 90 percent chardonnay and 10 percent pinot noir, as his wines often were. Fermented and aged entirely in barrique, it’s always a blend of two vintages, and spends four years in the cellars before release. The backbone of the Cuvée R is the fruit from old vines in a lieu-dit called Les Barillées, on the heart of the mid-slope of Vertus, which gives dense, sleekly powerful chardonnay. If you see a bottle now it will probably be the blend of equal parts 2000 and 2002, dosed at 3 g./l., which balances a rich depth of fruit with floral, complex fragrance and softly spicy, harmoniously integrated notes of wood. The next release, which is 60 percent 2004 and 40 percent 2002, is more nervy and brisk, buoyed by the crisp acidity of the 2004 vintage, and shows complex, vividly fragrant aromas of tangerine, white peach and apple. Not to be missed is Veuve Fourny’s Millésimé 2002 Blanc de Blancs, sourced exclusively from parcels in Les Barillées and Les Monts Ferrés in the heart of the slope (the same terroir, incidentally, as Larmandier-Bernier’s outstanding Terre de Vertus). It’s labeled as brut but dosed at a mere 3 g./l., and there was no malolactic fermentation. Fresh, lively and fragrant, it’s an energetic and complete wine, showing a fine subtlety and balance that keeps it vibrant through the long, citrus-dominated finish. It’s still adolescent now but extremely promising, and worth laying down in the cellar.

Veuve Fourny is imported into the United States by Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants in Berkeley, CA, and into the United Kingdom by Thorman Hunt & Co. in London.

Exercises Designed to Confound and Amaze Both Brain and Palate

I’ve been put through some Champenois calisthenics over the past couple of days. This morning I tasted through barrels of 2007 vins clairs with Emmanuel Fourny of Champagne Veuve Fourny in Vertus, not only parcel by parcel across the village, but also the same parcel put into different barrels. Just like in Burgundy, only with Vertus chardonnay: medium toast vs. medium plus; steam-bent vs. flame; toasted heads vs. non-toasted; Alliers vs. Vosges; François Frères vs. Radoux; etc. etc. Very, very interesting. Yesterday I was at Champagne Mumm, where chef de cave Didier Mariotti (pictured) began with a dosage tasting (the same wine with multiple levels of dosage). He then moved to a series of wines comparing different blends of Mumm de Cramant and Cordon Rouge 2007, including the final cuvées after being blended and pumped, to show how much they change compared to the initial sample. (They change much, much more than one would think, mostly due to oxygenation from pumping. I’ve never experienced that before, and it was tremendously interesting and instructive.) As if that wasn’t enough to think about, Didier finished with a massive “quality control” retrospective of various champagnes from the cellar, disgorged on the spot, including secret previews of multiple vintages of their superb new prestige cuvée, R. Lalou, and multiple comparisons of identical wines in both magnum and bottle. This is why I live in Champagne: these are the sorts of things you don’t get to see anywhere outside of the region.

2007 Vins Clairs, Round One

I’ve been both busy with work and incapacitatingly ill during the last two weeks, but I’ve managed to visit a handful of producers in the meantime to taste the results of the 2007 harvest. It was a strange year here in Champagne: March and April were warm and summer-like, resulting in early flowering (and consequently an early harvest), yet throughout the summer it was grey and damp, and sometimes July and August felt more like April should have. Mildew was a constant problem due to the wet weather, necessitating much more treatment than usual, and there was severe hail in several areas (such as Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and the Vallée de Surmelin) that reduced the crop considerably. Thankfully, sunny weather and a drying north wind in late August helped to boost maturity and limit the spread of rot, and most people began picking at the end of August. “If we didn’t have good weather on the 25th [of August], the vintage would have been catastrophic,” says Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy of Champagne René Geoffroy. “We would have had another 1984.” As it is, people are pleased, and somewhat relieved: the quality appears much higher than what was forecasted, and while it won’t be a widely declared vintage year, the higher acidities will help to fill a need for reserve wines after two warm, ripe vintages. Incidentally, this is already the second time this decade that harvest has begun in August, in a region that was more accustomed to October picking just a generation ago.

Conventional wisdom is that chardonnay fared the best and meunier the worst in ’07, and yield-wise chardonnay was certainly higher than the other two. I haven’t tasted enough yet to make intelligent comments about that, but I’ll give you a brief rundown of my impressions so far:

Diebolt-Vallois, Cramant
Pinots for the Tradition aren’t too bad: fresh, supple, nicely clean. Several tanks of racy, citrusy juice for the green label that are very impressive (I see that I actually wrote at one point, “Who’s talkin’ ‘bout a light vintage?”), and terrific Cramant wines for the Prestige that remind me more of 2004 than 2002 at this stage, more firm and vividly intense. As usual, a lovely selection of Cramant parcels in barrel for a potential Fleur de Passion, all showing outstanding structure and finesse. A barrel of pure Pimonts was my favorite and the most complete on its own, though a close second was a minerally, nervy blend of two-thirds Rouillées and one-third Buzons. Jacques Diebolt thinks that he might make vintage wines in 2007.

De Sousa, Avize
Many people blended early this year, due to the early harvest, and at De Sousa the Tradition and basic blanc de blancs are already completed, so I couldn’t do any tank tastings. I did taste from barrel, however. Avize La Fosse is outstanding as usual, less powerful than some past years but still showing lovely breeding and finesse – De Sousa won’t make vintage wine this year, so this will go into Caudelies NV. Even more impressive was a barrel of Le Mesnil that made me think of Pernot Puligny Folatières. Great elegance and length on all of these – should make for fantastic reserve wines.

Veuve Fourny, Vertus
“The wines of Vertus are a little rounder than those in the rest of the Côte des Blancs,” says Emmanuel Fourny, “and [because of the high acidity of] 2007 this resulted in a nice balance.” Half of Fourny’s vines are in the lieu-dit of Monts Ferrés, near Le Mesnil, and three different tanks, from vines of different ages, showed variations on a theme of lemony, racy energy, underlined by intense, nearly spicy minerality. Other samples from different sites around the village clearly illustrated how the terroir changes as you move from the Mesnil side to the Bergères side, combining vivid acidity with surprisingly rich depth. Most surprising, though, was a barrel of pungent, smoky Vertus pinot noir picked at 11.8˚ natural alcohol! There are lots of other parcels of chardonnay separated out in barrel but they’re all going through malo right now (several people told me that malos were very late this year), so I’ll return in a few weeks to taste those.

René Geoffroy, Cumières
Remember the words Les Hontrants! Someday, hopefully, we’ll see a Geoffroy wine from the parcel of that name, co-planted (à la Deiss) with five varieties (including petit meslier and arbanne). The wine is flowery, citrusy and umami all at the same time, and very Deiss-like in its supression of varietal character. Among “normal” wines, highlights included a lovely, aristocratic chardonnay from Le Chêne, destined for either Volupté or Empreinte; a steely, vivacious chardonnay from the steep and chalky Tourne-Midi, on the opposite side of Cumières; and a creamy, aromatic pinot noir from La Grange and two other parcels, stored in foudre.

Jacquesson, Dizy
There will probably be no vintage wines from Jacquesson this year, although the Corne Bautray is the most promising, with a subtle complexity and delicate body. The Avize Champ Caïn shows firm structure and definite Avize refinement, but Jean-Hervé Chiquet thinks it’s a little too lean to make a vintage wine. No Vauzelle Terme, as it’s blended in with other pinots. There are two barrels of potential Terres Rouges saignée rosé, but they were both badly reduced on my visit and difficult to taste. I did taste a pinot noir (vinified en blanc) from another part of the Terres Rouges that was fragrant and full of berryish aroma, with an earthiness and broad girth that shows how different this side of Dizy is from the Aÿ side.

Gosset, Aÿ
With Gosset’s policy of no malolactic, this is like old-school, tooth-rattling vin clair tasting (but it hurts so good). You know you’re in for it when the first wine of the morning is Cuis (high-acid village), 2007 (high-acid vintage), chardonnay (high-acid variety) from Gosset (sans malo)! That Cuis was lovely though, after recovery from the whiplash. It’s impressive how chef de cave Jean-Pierre Mareigner achieves balance in all of his various lots – we tasted samples from about ten different villages, nearly all of them showing clear, precise expressions of place. The Ambonnay filled the mouth like Chambertin – I would have taken a bottle of this home as a still wine if he had let me. Interestingly (and a little counter-intuitively, in this cool and damp year), Mareigner is a big fan of 2007 red wine (as in, red wine used to make rosé). “It was a good year for rouge. Lots of people said, ‘Oh, they have no color’, but look at this,” he said, holding up a glass of deeply scarlet pinot noir blended from Ambonnay, Bouzy and Cumières. “There’s plenty of color. 2003 was an excellent vintage for reds, but I think 2007 is even better.”

Pehu-Simonet, Verzenay
Unfortunately David Pehu had already blended nearly everything by the time I arrived. The blends were very promising, especially the sleek, velvety blanc de noirs, a selection of the best Verzenay pinots in the cellar, 30% of which was aged in wood. A portion of this wine will be bottled as pure 2007 (but not vintage-dated), while another part was left in barrel for reserve wine, slightly more closed yet still showing terrific class and subtle, long aromas. I also loved the delicate, floral rosé, which was blended with 40% of reserves from 2006 and 10% red wine from Les Poules in Mailly and Les Noues in Verzenay (which are basically right next to each other).

I’m off to the Loire today for the Salon des Vins de Loire, visits to lots of Louis/Dressner producers, a taste of new vintages of Damien Laureau’s awesome Savennières, and all the oysters and pork products I can possibly eat. I’ll return home in a week for another round of vin clair tasting....