Chambolle Musigny Amoureuses, Jean-Marie Fourrier 2013

(the first in a range of négociant wines, which Jean-Marie Fourrier showed me following his estate cuvées): Bright dark red with ruby highlights. Very ripe aromas of raspberry, blood orange and crushed stone, with a medicinal menthol nuance; doesn't offer quite the aromatic lift of Fourrier's best domain wines. Fat and sweet on the palate, with a medicinal aspect to the flavors of black raspberry and blackberry. Quite backward, even a bit tough on the finish, showing a light minty quality. This was hard to taste following the the last few domain wines. Fourrier was on the verge of discontinuing his négociant project due to the sharply rising prices for good fruit in Burgundy but he found financial backers in Europe and the U.K. that enabled him to make two to four casks apiece of several top crus without having to borrow money from a bank. He told me that he only buys fruit "from close-by vineyards where I can see the sky from here."