Chateau de l'Etoile

“It is not a secondary estate,” he told us, “To Domaine Fourrier. Our mission is to set a new benchmark for how people imagine the Jura.”

The soon-to-be twenty-one-year-old Louis Fourrier met us one day in May, his ebullience brimming with a familiar excitement. We’ve come to know his father, Jean-Marie, he of the Domaine Fourrier in Gevrey-Chambertin. Louis, the fifth generation of the Fourrier family to be involved in the estate, still calls Dijon home; yet, he is very clear that the name “Fourrier” will not grace the labels of the Jura Crown Jewel that has been added to the family of estates: Chateau de L’Etoile. “I have a big sense of legacy,” Louis admitted, “And I want to create something that might outlive me.”

The Chateau de L’Etoile is one of the first “real estates” in the Jura, Louis informed us. The “niche appellation” of L’Etoile is tiny - only eighteen hectares in total. “It was going downhill,” he claims, “But had tremendous potential.” There was a castle built on the estate in the thirteenth century, some of the remnants of which wall in the “Clos du Chateau” vineyard. After it burnt in the sixteenth century, much of the estate was rebuilt to be a monastery. In 1883, the estate was purchased by a family who would maintain ownership until the Fourriers came calling in 2024.

Just a year earlier, in 2023, Louis Fourrier had graduated high school. “My dad didn’t push me to go to an enological high school,” Louis told us, “Which many of my friends had been sent to.” Yet, the day after his graduation, he was back at the Domaine Fourrier, aiding in the winemaking process. “In 2024, it was getting very fast for me - I was going to the Beaune Viticultural School (Lycée Viticole de Beaune), when my dad’s partner introduced us to the idea of L’Etoile. I made the choice of practical experience rather than school.”

In truth, Louis admits that the Fourriers had been looking in the Jura for potential acquisitions previously, but when presented with this opportunity realized, said Louis, “Other estates did not compete - L’Etoile came as a surprise!”

After the purchase, then came the actual work; “2024,” Louis says with a shake of his head, “Was the worst we could imagine to start with - but it was a chance to learn.” As an example of this, Louis continues to outline the size of the estate, and how the first vintage pales in comparison to what potential it holds. “We have the size to - with conservative yields - make fifty to fifty-five thousand bottles,” he starts. “The ideal is somewhere between fifty and eighty [thousand].” He stops to swallow, and grins, painfully. “In 2024, we managed twenty-one thousand bottles from our sixteen hectares; just thinking of this now, I still get goosebumps from the memory!”

Louis plans, in the long term, to split his time between the Jura and Gevrey, and there is a team in each location that he oversees; yet, it is clear that in the present, L’Etoile is his focus. This comes with certain adjustments for all, he admits. “The team is older than me,” he grins, “But I can’t rush my experience. My dad’s first vintage on his own was 1994, and he says he didn’t get it right until 1999. I’m playing it safe, a little, but I see this as a great challenge.”

In juxtaposition to Burgundy, Louis informs us that the viticulture in the Jura is similar to the Burgundy of thirty years ago; Jura, though, is on the same path. It’s sensitive to frost, and, as Louis puts it, “We don’t have the same tools.” In this, he’s referring to the fact that the Jura has been more sparsely planted - contrasting ten thousand plants per hectare in Burgundy to Jura’s seven thousand over that same area - and are only now really being forced to adapt to the climactic changes. Still, says Louis, “I learned not to complain too much, after visiting my friends in the Rhone Valley,” referring to the climactic influences that have marred many vintages’ yields. “My knowledge is limited versus my experience, but I have common sense.”

The conversation invariably returns to the relative youth of both the conversion of the estate into a modified tradition, as well as that of its leader. One thing is sure, in that Louis has in his father someone who is very inspirational for him, and has shown him the runway to success. “Being backed by somebody you trust is huge, as there are no jobs that give as much pressure as making wine,” Louis says. “I am entering a fifty year internship before I know anything.”

VITICULTURE & VINIFICATION

”The complex in the Jura,” Louis tells us, “Is finding the identity: there are so many wines, so many winemaking types. I want to bring balance, and bring a certain homogeneity among vintages.” Louis’ preferred style is that of ouillé, the non-oxidative-styled wines of the Jura. In tasting the wines in the cellar and in the market from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, he tells us the wines were “tremendous,” but had entered a bit of a “sad part” leading to the eventual sale.”This is a chance to learn [about the estate’s personality], and to find the DNA over time.”

In 2024, Louis utilized a very Burgundian style, choosing to vinify the plots separately. In realizing all of the different aspects of the vineyards, he says, “I could have made ten Chardonnays alone.” After vinification, most of the plots of the same varieties were blended, with the Clos du Chateau, his premium vineyard, bottled separately. With the severely small yields, the three red varieties - Pinot Noir, Trousseau and Poulsard - were co-fermented as is traditional in the Jura; Louis may look to separate these in future vintages - 2025 already will have two different red cuvees.

An additional varietal, Savagnin Rose, exists on the property. “It’s a weird varietal, an accidental cross between Riesling and Savagnin,” he explains, “With a pink skin. We don’t macerate it, but it’s very unique with characteristics of both grapes.”

In the cellar, fermentations are performed in stainless steel, as it “Keeps the integrity of the plot,” Louis claims. For the foreseeable future, this will remain the practice, with some aging in the future planned in new oak barrels. “We have to be careful,” Louis says, “To preserve the value of the wine to the consumers!”

Soil-wise, Louis claims that those of Chateau L’Etoile are similar to those of Puligny-Montrachet: “They’re salty,” he says, “And both have stars - Pentacrinites - in the soils.” Clay, sand, silt and limestone all play a part, generating an amalgam within L’Etoile that happily marries the Jura estate to its Gevrey brethren.