ROMANÉE SAINT VIVANT

Domaine ‘JJ’ Confuron is named after the father of Sophie Meunier, who now runs the domaine with her husband Alain Meunier. Gradually they are handing it over to their son Louis.

The domaine goes back to the marriage in 1926 of Jean Confuron de Vosne and Anne-Marie Bouchard de Premeaux, starting with the vines that they both inherited. Together, they acquired more and started selling their own bottled wine in the early 1930s. Jean died in 1965. They had two sons, Christian and Jean-Jacques, who worked together until 1980. Jean-Jacques set up his own estate in 1981, but he died in January 1983. From then on it was his wife Andrée Noëllat and his daughter Sophie who took care of the estate. Sophie met Alain Meunier at the Lycée agricole in Beaune and from the 1985 harvest they worked together. In 1988, Andrée received one hectare of vines from her grandfather Charles Noëllat's domaine, which included the important parcels in Romanée St-Vivant, Nuits Boudots and Vosne Beaux Monts.

Since Louis has taken over the winemaking there have been some changes, but as they have no fixed 'recipe' it is hard to be precise - the levels of new wood seem to have dropped slightly, and like a lot of growers Louis has used some whole-bunch fermentation. On the whole they are relatively early pickers, and the wines have a generous depth of fruit. Although they have been organic since the 1990's Louis is concerned that the soils are still not in the best of health, so he is trying grassing over - but is concerned that this can mean competition for the vines and lower yields. In general he's trying to improve biodiversity in the vineyards, but says that they are going at it by feel, with small changes to see what works - a very practical hands-on approach. He spends 80% of his time tending the vines, and is working to make the plants more resistant to disease and rot.

The domaine is now at around 9.22 hectares, made up of 0.65 vines in IGP Auxois, in the commune of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain (where the Johnny Depp Juliette/Binoche film 'Chocolat' was made), some Aligoté, and:
Bourgogne Rouge 1.5ha
Côte de Nuits-Villages 'au Leurey' 0.14ha
Côte de Nuits-Villages 'La Montagne' white. In the village of Corgoloin, planted in 2007 0.355 ha.
Côte de Nuits-Villages 'La Montagne' red 0.283 ha.
Côte de Nuits-Villages 'Les Vignottes' in the village of Premeaux-Prissey, planted in the 1980s, 1.263 ha.
Nuits Saint-Georges 'Les Fleurières' planted in the 1970s, 1.23 ha.
Chambolle-Musigny planted in the 1960s, 50% from Les Condemennes and 25% each from Pas de Chat and Derrière le Four 1.115 ha
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Chabœufs one third planted in 1979, the rest in 2012. 0.48 ha.
Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru, from Chatelots and Feusselottes, one third planted in the 1940s, the rest in the 1960s 0.35 ha.
Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Boudots planted in the 1950s 0.3 ha.
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts planted in 1945 0.3 ha.
Clos-Vougeot Grand Cru planted in 1965 0.5 ha.
Romanée Saint-Vivant Grand Cru planted in 1922 0.5 ha.