veuve fourny et fils
Emmanuel & Charles-Henry Fourny
Vertus
Côte des blancs - champagne
story…
Fifth generation winegrowers Charles-Henry & Emmanuel Fourny took over the reins at their family domaine in 1993 and have continued the family tradition since. With estate bottlings dating back to the 1930’s when their grandfather, Alberty Fourny, began bottling under the Albert Fourny label, which then became known as Veuve A. Fourny in the 50’s after Albert’s passing.
Based in the village of Vertus in the Côtes des Blancs the estate was originally founded as a récoltant-manipulant but they changed their status in 1979 to négociant-manipulant so they could buy grapes from friends and family members with holdings in parts of the village that they do not own plots in. Their main goal in this was to become true specialist of Vertus by producing wine from all areas of the village.
Fourny’s cellars date back to the 1840’s with a notorious knack for maintaining high levels of humidity which is great for their barrel aging program. As of 2011 they also have a new cuvérie (winery) facility adjacent to the original aging cellars.
farming & Philosophy…
Farming practices for all the domaine holdings fall into the lutte raisonée style, although they employ many organic and some biodynamic theories and practices. They attempted to go full organic in the late 90’s but due to several issues, including losing 50% of their crop in 97 to mildew, the financial stress was too much to continue farming exclusively organic. For the most part they farm everything under the guidelines of organic but reserve the right to treat synthetically if needed.
All compost used in the vineyards is strictly organic and in most of their sites they employ cover crops with just a few that are ploughed regularly. All of the vineyards they source fruit from, around 4-5 hectares worth of fruit a year, are farmed to the same standards as their own holdings. All of the fruit, including from the vineyards they lease or purchase from, are hand harvested.
The Fourny’s only use the first pressing of juice for their estate bottlings. All fermentations takes place in stainless tanks and around one quarter of all the wine goes through malolactic fermentation. Around 30% of all their wine is aged in neutral Burgundy barrels and on the lees for 6 months, the remaining 70% is aged in temperature controlled stainless tanks, both with regular lees stirring. The brothers like to blend non-malo and malo wine together to create a more complete wine with both roundness and freshness.
Nearly all of the plots are vinified separately, and only when they don’t have the means to do so do they vinify more than one plot together. All of the wine ages for a minimum of 3 years in bottle before disgorgement and then another 6 months on cork in bottle before release. Dosages are always on the low side averaging around 2-3 g/l but are sometimes up to 6 g/l depending on the cuvée and the vintage.
There are two cuvées that are vinified entirely in wood, their “R de Veuve Fourny” and the “Clos Faubourg Notre Dame” both are the most prestige bottlings from the house.
Vineyards…
They own around 8.5 hectares of vines primarily located in the northern reaches of the village along the border of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The average age of their vines are around 40 years, which is fairly old for Champagne, and much of the vineyards were grafted by massal selection by Albert Fourny. Their holdings are divided across 40 different parcels.
Chardonnay makes up around 90% of their holdings with the rest rounded out with Pinot Noir, mostly found in their plots located in the southern reaches of the village where there is more clay soils.
Les Monts Ferrés
a chalk heavy site located in the northern area of the village | Chardonnay from this site is used to create the base of their Blanc des Blancs Brut & Brut Nature, as well as their Grande Reserve
Gilottes
a clay heavy site with 35+ year old vines | Pinot Noir from this site is used to create a still rouge for their NV rosé
Clos Faubourg Notre Dame
a singularly unique site located just behind the estate, a walled in monopole vineyard of about 20 acres in size planted entirely to Chardonnay on chalk subsoil with very little topsoil | planted in 1951
