Domaine Fournier St Urbain (750ml)

Old vines can be found throughout his vineyards, contributing to the immense purity and finesse Fournier’s wines are known for.  He rarely has more than 20% new oak in use at any time as he wants the oak élevage to bring out the latent character of the fruit rather than to become part of the profile. Fournier uses 500L Austrian oak barrels for his village and site-specific wines. Laurent believes that the Austrian oak is uniquely suited for his Bourgogne wine style because the raw wood is matured for over 5 years in a continental climate with real temperature variation so that the tighter oak grains allow just the right amount of oxygen exchange and tannin as he likes. For all Frounier’s wines, both primary and secondary fermentations occur without inoculations and sulfur is only added in the smallest amounts after malolactic fermentation is complete. As for fining and filtration, Laurent would prefer clarifying and fining his wine through natural settling and bottling under the positive influences of high barometric pressure and the full moon.