Recap: Domaine Didier Fornerol Dinner @ Houseman

by Max Goldberg Liu
Friday, April 28, 2023

We enjoyed a lovely evening last night at Houseman, a fantastic neighborhood restaurant on the border of Hudson Square and Tribeca, which recently ranked #76 on Pete Wells’ list of top 100 restaurants in New York City. The featured vigneron was Didier Fornerol, a grower in the sleepy village of Corgoloin whose wines have attained cult status and surprising rarity despite their humble Côte de Nuits Village appellation.

Corgoloin is the southernmost village in the Côte de Nuits, located just north of Ladoix-Serrigny. Along with its northern neighbor Comblanchien, Corgoloin is famous for the quality of its pinkish marble limestone which has been used as a luxury construction material for centuries, most notably in the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris. Today, the quarries are still active, and one can often hear sounds of blasting and drilling from the vineyards, which perhaps does not make for the most idyllic experience in the vines, but which reminds one of the always-present limestone.

An apocryphal story from the locals explains why Corgoloin and Comblanchien are in the Côte de Nuits Village appellation rather than being AOC villages, despite the high quality of their terroir. When the AOC system was created in the 1930’s, a large percentage of the villages’ total production of wine was purchased by the quarries to hydrate their workers - as much as 3 liters per day per person! This easily accessible market was quite lucrative for Corgoloin and Comblanchien, so rather than apply for AOC status and be subject to the associated scrutiny and bureaucracy, the villages decided to keep the status quo. Of course, it should be noted that Doctor Jules Lavalle’s mid-19th century original classification of the Côte d’Or did not mark any vineyards in the two villages as Premier Cru or Tête de Cru, so who knows…

Didier Fornerol’s estate is around 6 hectares, all in Corgoloin. Most of the vines are Côte de Nuits Villages (a small part of which are planted in Chardonnay) with small bits of Bourgogne Rouge & Blanc, Hautes Côtes de Nuits, and Passetoutgrains. He worked for many years as cellar hand and in the vines at Domaine Jules Belin in Premeaux, which upon being sold to Jean-Pierre de Smet & AXA in 1986, became known by its current name Domaine de l’Arlot. When Jean-Pierre de Smet retired in 2007, he started informally consulting with Didier, who had since returned full time to his family estate (and who amazingly works entirely by himself except during harvest time!) Didier is a talented vigneron and a little sprinkling of Jean-Pierre’s whole cluster savoir-faire from his time at Dujac & l’Arlot has added an immense amount of elegance and finesse to the wines.

They are all made with 100% whole cluster, with only gentle pump-overs, and without much new oak (10% at most). The resulting wines are floral, pure, mineral, delicately-spiced, and intensely aromatic - old-school Burgundy at its finest, without any pretense.

Here are some notes from the dinner:

Apéritif
Bourgogne Blanc 2017 - absolutely delicious - fresh and lively

Pig’s head terrine, parsley salad, grilled bread, fermented pepper mayo
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2018 - rich, primary, solar
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2017 - more vertical, airy, delicate but present tannins
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2016 - a bit closed but elegant cherry fruit
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2014 - acid-driven, much less dense than the other wines

Risotto with ramps, peas and favas
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2011 - not my favorite vintage - a bit stemmy
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2010 - delicious cherry cola character
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2007 - lots of spice, drinking beautifully
Côte de Nuits Villages Rouge 2006 - evolving nicely, showing secondary and some tertiary aromas, tannins well-integrates

Lightly smoked quail, swiss chard, tahini cream
La Rue des Foins is a special parcel selection that was first identified as producing superior fruit in 2008

Côte de Nuits Villages "Rue des Foins" 2017 - bright, lots of finesse. Interesting to compare to the regular cuvée, has more density and color
Côte de Nuits Villages "Rue des Foins" 2016 - crunchy fruit & mineral dust
Côte de Nuits Villages "Rue des Foins" 2015 - deep & complex, lots of concentration and hidden potential

Cheeses from Saxelby
Côte de Nuits Villages "Rue des Foins" 2010 - One of my favorite wines Didier has made. Delicious!
Côte de Nuits Villages "Rue des Foins" 2009 - rich, very impressive length. Also delicious!
Côte de Nuits Villages Blanc 2005 - very impressive freshness for an 18 year old white Burgundy from this appellation! A revelation