Alain Meunier said that he began harvesting 5 or 6 September. Over the summer, he had performed a green harvest. Resulting overall yields were about 40 hl/ha, which he described as “generous,” but that’s not surprising given the frost losses in 2016 and the tendency of vines to come back very vigorously the year following such a frost. There was a 2% bleeding of the vats (saigner) for all wines.
All wines that I tasted below were from destemmed grapes; there were some whole clusters in the Bourgogne, but I did not taste that wine, as it was being prepared for bottling or was already in bottle.
Now working with his children, Alain said that there was more maceration and less punching down (pigeage) than in the past, less new oak, and as a result, less use of SO2. The amount of new oak is 20% for village wines, 30% for 1er crus, and 50% for grands crus.
Malo-lactic fermentations took place at various times, some finishing in the January 2018, others finishing not long before I visited in November 2018.
2017 Côte de Nuits-Villages La Montagne
From ten year-old vines, this wine is dense and concentrated with dark fruits, a smooth texture, length, and purity. It may not have complexity, but it is very easy to like. (86-88)
2017 Côte de Nuits-Villages Les Vignottes
Here, the vines date from 1961 to 1985, averaging about 40 years of age. The wine shows pure cassis fruit, lightness on the palate, good intensity, and overall elegance. (88-90)
2017 Chambolle-Musigny
The village Chambolle has dense dark fruits, elegance, purity, and concentration. (89-92)
2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Fleurières
The Nuits, Fleurières features dense, pure, concentrated blueberry fruit. The wine is light on the palate but has round tannins that give structure. (89-91)
2017 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru
From the Feusselottes and Châtelots vineyards, the Chambolle 1er Cru shows lightness to its dark and red fruits, Chambolle delicacy, good length, and some juiciness to the texture. (90-93)
2017 Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
This wine has an excellent expression of Beaux Monts minerality to go with finesse, pure red fruits, and lightness on the palate. (93-95)
2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Boudots
The Nuits-Boudots shows excellent density of fruit, good concentration, some tannic structure yet airiness, and a smooth texture. (92-95)
2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Chaboeufs
Confuron’s Nuits-Chaboeufs displays greater minerality and a tighter structure than the Boudots. Here, too, there’s lightness on the palate. The wine has good depth, length, and tension, and is a very good expression of the terroir. (92-95)
2017 Clos-Vougeot
The Clos-Vougeot has red fruits with salinity and a touch of dark chocolate. The wine has good depth and is elegant for a Clos-Vougeot. There are tannins here, but they are not astringent. (92-95)
2017 Romanée-Saint-Vivant
Last, the Romanée-Saint-Vivant is sensual, pure, and long with excellent concentration. The wine features red fruits and shows length and depth. (94-97)