2022 Domaine Didier Fornerol, Côte de Nuits Villages AOC Rouge, Burgundy, France.
This Domaine Didier Fornerol Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge from the nicely concentrated and appealing 2022 vintage, captures the year’s best graces and the terroir through mature almost 40 year old Pinot Noir vines, and what I would say loaded of whole bunch exotic character with an exciting array of expressive fruit, mineral charm, subtle oak use and a lengthy finish. As noted below, I tasted this wine blind with my friend Alex Lallos, who has imported some f these Fornerol gems, and while I thought I knew it was a Burgundy, it did also remind me a bit of some fine Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo and Vespolina blends, as it showed some intriguing whole cluster influenced amaro, earthiness and a faint guava/pomegranate note, to go along with the more easily recognizable Pinot fruits. The wine has a firm grip, but velvety silken tannins and still some good acidity that compliments the fruit density with a lovely feeling medium bodied palate of black cherry, wild plum, strawberry and the other mentioned elements, along with hints of bergamot, sassafras, rose petals, woodsy under brush, delicate toast and a mix of baking spices. As new discoveries go, this Didier Fornerol was high point and I am thrilled to had this one and look forward to following his wines in the future.
The enthusiast Burgundy fan now has a new shiny object to chase and for, and for good reason, these Fornerol offerings are brilliant, under the radar and high value bottlings! I just discovered them, thanks to my in the know friend Alex Lallos at No Limits Wine Wines who blind tasted me on this one and told me that Didier Fornerol was once the vineyard manager and cellar master at Domaine de L’Arlot, a long time favorite of mine, from 1982 until 1998. Them In 1999, he returned to his family’s domaine and now, underlies own label, he has really fine-tuned the winemaking at the domaine with crucial help from L’Arlot’s legendary Jean-Pierre de Smet, making these wines highly sought after. I learned that many generations had farmed Fornerol’s land in the once very humble part of the Côte de Nuits, but didn’t inherit the vines until after he spent those 16 years’ time working alongside de Smet at L’Arlot, where he watched and truly honed his craft. Also, as I guessed above, tthe reds there are typically see a lot of whole-cluster fermentation and are all fermented in and aged in barrel, generally with about 10% new wood used. Fornerol’s plots are mostly in the Cote de Nuits-Villages on the classic clay and limestone which contributes to the purity and depth of the Pinot Noir, as seen here in this beautiful and drinking well already 2022 edition, by sure to keep an eye out for these Fornerol wines.
($48-69 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive