Confuron Cotetidot Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Petite Chapelle TT 2019

Winegrowers since the 17th century, the Confuron family have always selected and propagated vines to ensure their plant material produced the highest quality, and they even have a clone of Pinot named after them - 'Pinot Confuron'.

The estate has several Grands Cru vineyards as well as two hectares of the great Vosne Romanée Premier Cru 'Les Suchots'. There are about 12 hectares in total. The vines have never seen chemical herbicides and are ploughed under and managed organically.

The Confurons have always used whole-cluster fermentation, harvesting late, which is really a necessity if the stems are to be properly ripe and not impart green flavours to the wine. A bit like the Thévenets with their whites in the Mâconnais, they harvest so much later that they can seem to have different vintages to everyone else. Yves thinks that 2007 was his great vintage of the first decade of this millennium, and he would probably be the only producer in the Côte de Nuits who would say so. Yves also makes the wines at Domaine de Courcel in Pommard in the same way.

Yves, opinionated and laconic as ever, dismisses those who make pale wines by “infusion” and says that failing to let whole bunches ripen properly – and using the whole bunch – is failing to get the most out of the terroir. The wines he makes are dark, richly concentrated and often difficult to taste as they develop, but experience shows that they age brilliantly. Defending his decision to harvest late, he once said “you lose the differentiation between the vintages” if you don’t do this – making “cut and paste” wines that are the same every year… if you’re paying for a seat at the opera, you don’t want to hear a pop singer.”