Domaine Lemaire-Fournier
Nothing is immutable, especially in the world of wine. Domaines come and go, vignerons grow old and retire, land is bought and sold. Even in the grand left bank appellations of Bordeaux, with its 1855 classification supposedly fixed in stone, the wine landscape is in fact ever-changing. Some estates have disappeared altogether, parcelled up and sold off, whereas others have expanded or contracted over the decades with the sale, purchase and exchange of numerous plots of vines. Leaving Bordeaux and looking instead to the Loire, such activity is no less common. Indeed, I suspect it is far more common; it is just that we don’t hear of it, because the world of wine remains rigidly Bordeaux-obsessed, and land does not change hands at €2 million per hectare in Anjou or Touraine.
One such domaine that has come and gone is Domaine Lemaire-Fournier. It first bothered my conscience a few years ago, seemingly springing into existence almost overnight, when I spotted the wines of the domaine on the list of a French caviste that I have on occasion frequented. It was more recently, however, that I met proprietor – or should I say ex-proprietor – Marie-Annick Lemaire, who gave me a little more information on the domaine, and its apparent demise.
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