Burgundy Exchange: Damon Lovell's Postcard

The Burgundy Exchange has been quite an incredible experience. It began with a day at the CFPPA (Polytech in Beaune), where myself and the other stagiaires received lessons on geography, geology and the history of Burgundy. This day concluded with a tour around the Côte d’Or appellations, getting a lay of the land and seeing the vast range of terroirs.

That evening I was picked up by Louis Meunier, the Vigneron of Domaine Jean Jacques Confuron. The three weeks that followed were filled with hard work, eating, partying, surprisingly simple (yet incredibly effective) winemaking, and very little rain.

That first evening, I arrived at the Domaine and was welcomed by 30 vendangeurs (pickers), who were also staying there. This kicked off my very social experience at Confuron. During the day the work was serious, concentrated and speedy, but at night it was encouraged to party through to the early hours. It was a genuinely impressive culture, with great camaraderie amongst the team and a hard work ethic baseline.

The picking itself was tough. The majority of the vines are grown at 1metre row spacing, by 1m vine spacing, with a fruiting wire height of 0.5m. It was tough on the back but very cool to see some of the gnarly old vines.

Lunch each day consisted of at least three courses, with a beer beforehand and wine with food. Amazing salads with fresh baguette, a hearty main, followed by cheese and then often dessert. Heaven.

After three months of no rain and five heatwaves, the yields were understandably low. What was surprising, however, was the dark green canopies in the vineyard. There was little sign of water stress in the foliage, which comes down to the clay in their soils and the absence of irrigation, forcing the roots into the subsoil.

Although a light yield, the fruit came in clean and with small berries, resulting in strong colour extraction and rich flavours in the Pinot. The sorting table ensured that anything unfavourable was removed, and the ferments were left to tick away. Louis led a gentle vinification process with all wild ferments, minimal nutrients, and light cap management. Remontage (pump-over) was the main cap management technique each day, although foot pigeage was used primarily to gently crush portions of wholebunch.

The Confuron ethos is that with assistance, rather than intervention, the terroirs of the parcels will represent themselves through the wines. The soil here is very rich, predominantly clay and limestone, with many ancient seashells lying in the topsoil. The vineyards are pruned dynamically using a majority of either cordon or single cane/guyot but not strict across a block. Shoot thinning has been carried out meticulously on each of the 100,000 vines, leaving only every second shoot along a cane and removing all strays from old wood. Weed control is by occasional cultivation; however, they’re not out to keep soil bare as they want to maintain biodiversity.

It has been inspiring to see how the family-run Domaine carries out its vintage; the line between viticulture and winemaking is blurry. Instead of growing grapes and then making wine, they’re winegrowing all year round. This holistic reminder is something I look forward to bringing home.