NUITS SAINT GEORGES

2012 1er Cru Les Vignes Rondes Domaine J. Confuron Cotetidot

EN PRIMEUR

A coarser texture as expected of a Nuits, juty, dense. The fruit is all here with added eau de vie, wild fruit, cherry texture. Long term, but very good.L&S (Dec 2013)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

If you like your Nuits Premiers Crus to have some firmness and backbone to them, this is your wine. The tannins are on the firm side, but they are supported by plenty of fruit concentration, with flavours of fig and black plums, pepper and clove spice and a dense, compact finish. It’s all there, but will take time to come together in bottle. 2020-28 Rating: 94 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Jan 2014)

Gratifyingly more complex than the village Nuits-St-Georges, with a stemmy character adding lovely herbal notes. Very firm tannins – really bold and drying at the moment. Slightly light body is the only drawback. 2020-2036 Rating: 17.5 Richard Hemming MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jan 2014)

A distinctly floral nose of spice, plum and earth introduces relatively refined medium-bodied flavors that display a touch of wood on the solidly complex, well-balanced and persistent finish. As is typically the case this is an elegant Nuits but with the structure to reward longer-term cellaring. 2024+ Rating: 89-92 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Jan 2014)

Bright red-ruby. Black fruits, licorice and bitter chocolate on the nose, with violet, pepper and game nuances that reminded me of syrah. Voluptuous and deep on the palate, showing a distinctly liqueur-like quality. Finishes with a toothcoating wave of tannins. This should offer early accessibility owing to its sheer ripeness. Rating: 90-92 Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Jan 2014)

Velvet footed it pads onto the palate; deep crimson fruit, smooth and softly, deeply textured. Ripe, crushed and gorgeous fruit on the finish. This is exactly what vignerondes should be. Sweet, but fresh on the finish. Really rather sumptuous and sooo agreeable. From 2017. Rating: 18.25 Sarah Marsh MW, The Burgundy Briefing (Dec 2013)

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'.

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STORAGE OPTIONS:

Wines bought en primeur are scheduled to arrive in the UK over the course of the next eighteen months. If you do not wish to take home delivery, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our primeurs team for more information.

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BURGUNDY EN PRIMEUR FAQ

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