In contrast to the expression of the regular cuvée, this was actually quite aromatically reduced and thus impossible to properly assess. By contrast there is outstanding density of material and impressive vibrancy to the intense, powerful and broad-shouldered flavors that also ooze a fine minerality on the racy, refined, long and explosive finish. Not surprisingly, this is not necessarily any finer than the regular cuvée but it is slightly riper and has a bit more overall concentration as well that serves to buffer the somewhat more prominent tannins. 93-95 points
Note: a special cuvée created to celebrate the 100th year of vines planted in 1910
Producer note:
The always candid Jean-Marie Fourrier told me that because 2010 was "very cold and wet during the flowering that there was such a huge incidence of shot berries. As it turned out, this was beneficial for a variety of reasons given the relatively cool growing season. Perhaps most important was that the lower crop loads allowed the fruit to achieve excellent sugar as well as phenolic ripeness. Almost as important was that the tiny berries weren't close together so that there was much less rot than might have otherwise been the case. Third is that there wasn't much juice in the berries which means that there was a very high solid to liquid ratio, which allowed us to make quite concentrated wines. The other side of those benefits of course is that there isn't much wine in 2010 and we were down fully 40% compared to a normal year. We began picking on the 25th of September and brought in very clean fruit with excellent potential alcohols which turned out to be a bit higher than I originally expected. This was because the skins were very hard and it was only when the fruit was pressed that some of the smaller berries release their sugars. As to the wines, for me 2010 is Burgundy at its best as the wines have noble tannins, excellent balance and the underlying terroirs are immediately apparent. Moreover, I believe that the 2010s will prove to be very long-lived." I will repeat that Fourrier deliberately bottles with high CO2 levels as a partial defense against oxidation and thus if you elect to try an example or two young, be sure to decant for 20 to 30 minutes first.
