One of the many legends that swirl around the Bay Area chef and author Alice Waters is the one starring a fussy French chef, who, when asked about Waters’ hyper-seasonal California cuisine, huffed “that is not cooking, that is shopping.” Years later, we had New York chef David Chang talking about San Francisco’s “fig on a plate” aesthetic, and how chefs should “do something” with their food. It’s true that you don’t go to a restaurant for a fig on a plate, but it’s also hard to argue with an impeccably sourced ingredient—a perfectly ripe Early Girl tomato; a just-caught piece of fish—presented simply.
As applied to wine, there are certain estates that epitomize the idea that great wine is grown, not made. In Burgundy especially, wine producers most readily identify as “growers,” none more so than the Confuron family of Domaine Confuron-Cotetidot. Theirs are wines that wear their earthy authenticity proudly—which is not to say that they are ‘dirty’ but rather pure, perfumed, and deeply savory. We have a tiny parcel of Confuron-Cotetidot’s bottling from the minuscule “Derrière la Grange” Premier Cru in Chambolle-Musigny, and it is a master class in classic red Burgundy. It is an extremely rare beauty that is built to age, and we can offer up to three bottles per customer until it sells out.
Confuron-Cotetidot’s vineyard holdings are both diverse and diffuse—they make village-level wines in four different Côte de Nuits appellations (Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny, and Gevrey-Chambertin) and are known for their proficiency in selection massale, the traditional French method of propagating new vines from field-selected cuttings. This is a full-on family affair, with parents Jacky and Bernadette still overseeing the vineyard work while sons Yves and Jean-Pierre—both of whom keep ‘day jobs’ elsewhere in Burgundy—man the cellar. Vines are an average of 65 years or older, hand-harvested and cared for tirelessly to produce low yields. Farming has always been done organically, without the use of synthetic pesticides or herbicides, and wines are unfiltered and unfined. They apply 100% whole cluster fermentation, followed by a 2- to 3-week maceration and up to 2 years in the barrel—the amount of new oak dependent on the appellation.
The Confurons are one of the two owners of the “Derrière la Grange” Premier Cru, which is the smallest Premier Cru in Chambolle at just 1.18 acres (i.e. less than half a hectare). East-facing and tucked among the Premier Crus just downslope from the legendary “Bonnes Mares” Grand Cru, the Derrière la Grange (“behind the barn”) vineyard is described as having a more substantial percentage of clay in its soils, and is known to produce wines with deep concentration (the Confurons purchased their parcel of old vines from Domaine Louis Remy, whose wine from the site was well-known, if rarely seen).
In the glass it’s a deep ruby with garnet reflections at the rim, with aromas of preserved black cherry, blueberry, persimmon, forest floor, crushed roses, underbrush, exotic spices and crushed stones. Medium-plus in body, the wine combines some of the signature silkiness of Chambolle with a smoky, autumnal, dried leaves note that makes you want to put on a sweater and sip this wine on the patio, slowly and contemplatively, on the first chilly night of the season. The real sweet spot for this wine is likely 5-7 years down the line, so if you open a bottle now give it a rough decant about 60 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees. It is really earthy and evocative and perfect for the ‘old faithful’ Burgundy dishes like
coq au vin or
boeuf bourguignon. I know we suggest it a lot, but man, is it good. Cheers!
