GEVREY CHAMBERTIN
2014 1er Cru Craipillot Domaine J. Confuron Cotetidot
A sense of whole bunch fermentation from this on the nose. Sweetness of fruit with relaxed texture, then firming tannins as it finishes with good mineral drive. Drinking range: 2020 - L&S (Nov 2015)
75cl bottles (case of 12)
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(malo just about done):Good deep red. Raspberry, black cherry, dark spices, crushed rock and licorice on the nose. In a classically dry, penetrating style and youthfully imploded in the early going, showing a wild aspect to its berry fruit and strong elements of stone and saline minerality. A zesty lemony nuance added to this very juicy wine's appeal. This almost tastes like it's from a different vintage from the village wines here. Rating: 89-91 Stephen Tanzer, www.vinousmedia.com (Jan 2016)
Lively crimson. Sweet start. Bright fruit with a slightly heavy-handed overlay of oak. Just a bit out of kilter at the moment. Something oddly smoky about this. Drinking range: 2019 - 2026 Rating: 16+ Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jan 2016)
(from a .50 ha parcel). There is plenty of sauvage and Gevrey-style earth characters present on the spicy red and dark fruit aromas. The natural refinement of a typical Craipillot is evident on the delicious, upple and inviting medium-bodied flavors that culminate in a dusty and moderately firm finale. I like the balance and this should reward mid-term cellaring. Drinking range: - 2022 Rating: 90-92 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Jan 2016)
Picked comparatively late, as Yves Confuron’s wines generally are, this comes from a single parcel of 0.5 hectares and shows the effects of cooling breezes from the Hautes Côtes. Juicy, crunchy and spicy, with marked whole bunch character and hints of iodine and green malt. 2019-27 Drinking range: 2019 - 2027 Rating: 94 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Jan 2016)
Domaine J. Confuron Cotetidot
Vignerons since the seventeenth century, the Confuron family has always selected and propagated vines to ensure that their plant material produces the highest quality, and they even have a clone of Pinot named after them - 'Pinot Confuron'.
The domaine has several Grands Cru vineyards as well as two hectares of the great Vosne Romanée Premier Cru 'Les Suchots'. There are around 12 hectares in all. The vines have never seen chemical weedkillers, and are ploughed and managed organically.
The Confurons have always used whole-bunch fermentation, picking very late, which really is a necessity if the stems are to be properly ripe and not give green flavours to the wine. A bit like the Thévenets with their whites in the Mâconnais, they pick so much later that they can seem to have different vintages to everyone else. Yves thinks that 2007 was their great vintage of the first decade of this millennium, and he'd probably be the only grower in the Côte de Nuits who would say that. Yves also makes the wines at Domaine de Courcelin Pommard, in the same way.
Yves, opinionated and laconical as ever, dismisses those who make pale wines by 'infusion' and says that failing to get the whole bunches properly ripe - and using all the bunch - is failing to get everything the terroir can offer. The wines he makes are dark, richly concentrated, and often hard to taste in their development, but experience shows that they age brilliantly. Defending his decision to pick late, he once said 'you miss the differentiation between vintages' if you don't - making 'cut-and-paste' wines which are the same every year... if you pay for a seat at the opera, you don't want to hear a variety singer'.