Blending traditions

—WORDS Jane Faulkner

With one of Burgundy’s top vignerons now in charge of Australia’s iconic Bass Phillip pinot noir, change is coming about through evolution rather than revolution.

The lush green hills of south Gippsland, prime dairy country, are about as far removed from Burgundy as vigneron Jean- Marie Fourrier could ever imagine. Yet, he feels at ease— joyous even—on a vineyard 20 kilometres inland from Bass Strait at Leongatha South in southeast Victoria.

And what brought him to this wind-swept, high-rainfall region is Australia’s most famed pinot noir site—Bass Phillip.

Its creator, the legendary Phillip Jones, toiled the original 3.5-hectare high-density vineyard before adding another 8 hectares a decade later in 1996 on a different property a few kilometres away, a strategy that eventually elevated his wines to icon status. But as he told me on the eve of selling in early 2020, at 74 he was too exhausted to continue, and with no children to continue his legacy, the only option was to sell.

Enter Jean-Marie Fourrier of Burgundy’s esteemed Domaine Fourrier, who took the baton that same year and now co-owns Bass Phillip alongside Singaporean-based wine businessman Soo Hoo Khoon Peng and Hong Kongbased venture capitalist Kent Ho. While his partners are heavily invested, it is the Burgundian orchestrating the winery’s next phase.

Fourrier is quick to point out his admiration for Jones: “I have always had a huge respect for what Phillip achieved and I’ve always said that at Bass Phillip [it’s not about] revolution [in terms of winemaking approach], it’s an evolution,” he explains over the phone from his family estate in Gevrey-Chambertin. “I’m bringing consistency and precision, but I want to continue the legacy. I do not aim to make Burgundy wines [at Bass Phillip].”

For all his modesty, it is certainly a coup to have someone of Fourrier’s calibre overseeing this prized place. Yet of all coincidences, it is not his first time there. Visiting Australia in 2002 to promote his wines and Burgundy generally, his importer, the late Ross Duke, asked the young vigneron if he might be interested in some consultancy work. He headed to Gippsland to visit Phillip Jones.

“It was my first time in Australia and my introduction to Bass Phillip,” he recalls. “It was a mutual discovery for both of us because, coming from Burgundy, everything comes from the vineyard. For Phillip, I think it was the first time dealing with a consultant, so I said ‘let’s start in the vineyard,’” he explains. “The more time we spent together, the more it was an exchange of ideas between two crazy people. The joy of winemaking is [experimentation] and it was a fascinating introduction for me.

“You have to be an adventurer, a pioneer. That is what attracted me to this place.”

France has complex, detailed wine laws, specifically its appellation d’origine contrôlée law, which strictly regulates region, variety, yields, winemaking, quality and more; in Burgundy, the highest tier is grand cru followed by premier cru, according to the designation of the vineyards. To producers in Australia, who can grow any variety in any place (not that they should) such laws might appear restrictive. Conversely, there’s less freedom to experiment, and Fourrier likes to experiment. He saw in Jones a pioneering spirit. Very few vineyards were planted to pinot in the early 1980s and almost none at high density, as is the norm in Burgundy. The original Leongatha South vineyard came in at 8000 vines per hectare, whereas around 2500 per hectare is closer to the norm in Australian vineyards. “It takes madness to plant vineyards in Gippsland in the early ‘80s like this,” says Fourrier.

As an aside, Jones initially planted cabernet sauvignon in 1979, later switching to pinot noir and chardonnay. He also added gamay, gewurztraminer and nebbiolo.

While the pinots are highly prized, Fourrier says the place reminds him of Burgundy before the hype, before the outlandish prices, before supply outstripping demand.

For me, the adventure of Bass Phillip was coming back to the modest side of the wine world because Burgundy is crazy,” he says. “The Burgundy I grew up in, there were no stars. No one was famous. We were farmers with two bits of pipe, small tanks and a couple of buckets and we did the best with what we had.”

Of course, in time, with his overseas training and experience, Fourrier has brought consistency, quality and modern methods to Domaine Fourrier easing the variations in vintages, which were “very bumpy from one year to the next,” he says, adding, “Making good wines every year is what matters to me.”

It’s a philosophy he’s now bringing to Bass Phillip.

On home soil at Gevrey-Chambertin, Fourrier heads the family estate with his English-born wife, Vicki, and sister, Isabelle. Their nine hectares include a 0.26-hectare parcel of the excellent grand cru Griotte-Chambertin and a 0.89-hectare plot of the premier cru, Clos Saint-Jacques—arguably the jewel in the crown. He is only one of five who has a stake in the famed clos, a vineyard Burgundy lovers agree is the most famous cru that’s not a grand cru, more a historical anomaly as it wasn’t granted top appellation status back in the 1930s. Regardless, he has the privilege to work with very old vines—plantings from 1919, ‘28, the ‘30s and ‘40s. He also has plots in Morey St. Denis and Chambolle. This reads like a dream, and yes, the vineyards are a blessing, but credit to Fourrier for elevating the business to the lofty heights it now enjoys—it wasn’t always so. His father, Jean-Claude, was 14 when his father died in a tragic accident, and the teenager’s wish to be a mechanic faded as he went to work for his winemaking uncle. Jean-Claude later inherited the vineyard holdings and business, then known as Pernot-Fourrier, which later became Domaine Fourrier. Fourrier says his father lacked both the technical expertise and a passion for wine to make the most of it, but things began to change after a young Jean-Marie took over in 1994 aged 23.

He had recently returned from a lifechanging work trip at Domaine Drouhin in Oregon; a pivotal moment because there he learnt winemaking skills (he’d studied oenology in Beaune), more importantly, he realised what a gift the family’s vineyard holdings were; the key to great wine being a great site. Apart from a deep love and respect for the land he works, it’s Fourrier’s worldly attitude that sets him apart. A deep thinker, he’s constantly questioning all aspects of wine—from the growing, making to the selling and promotion. He also regards himself more a biologist than an oenologist.

Today, Domaine Fourrier wines are some of the world’s most sought-after, sold within a nano-second of release. Much like Bass Phillip’s. Sure, there have been some hiccups in the past, yet when on song, Bass Phillip wines reveal great beauty and power; the Reserve easily Australia’s finest pinot, and its most expensive at over $800 per bottle retail.

It’s worth noting the property was bought on the cusp of a global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, which meant Fourrier initially had to make the wine via Zoom. Luckily, Jones had asked his friend, experienced winemaker John Durham (ex-Cape Mentelle), to help with his final vintage in 2019. Durham stayed on to oversee several subsequent vintages alongside Fourrier’s brother-in-law, Adam ‘Skip’ Francis, who is now Bass Phillip’s onsite winemaker and general manager.

Skip says the original vineyard has been completely re-trellised—a huge undertaking—and in late 2020, they bought the former Clair de Lune winery in nearby Kardella. Grafting to chardonnay and pinot noir has begun and future plantings will be high-density. A new modern winery will be finished in time for next year’s vintage and some of the sheds at the original property will be demolished for more plantings.

“We will replant there because this is the terroir, the best site,” Skip explains. “There’s prime soil under these buildings and we need to use it.”