Francois Confuron-Gindre Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Chaumes 2021

Les Chaumes is the most generous and textural of the four Confuron-Gindre premier crus — and the one whose terroir character most immediately reveals itself. The parcel sits at the foot of the slope in the Les Chaumes climat, with vines that are partly very old — some planted in 1919 and 1920 — delivering naturally low yields and remarkable aromatic concentration from this lower-slope position. The foot-of-hill location means deeper soils with more clay than the steeper upper-slope parcels, and that clay content, allied to the extraordinary vine age, produces a wine of greater flesh and roundness than either Les Beaumonts or Les Brûlées — broader, more enveloping, more immediately seductive. The wine is aged for 18 months in barrels with 40% new oak — the highest new oak proportion in the range, appropriate for a wine with the concentration and structure to absorb it.

Seductive and textural, built upon aromas of ripe cherry and strawberry with hints of cinnamon, vanilla and sandalwood — a warmer, more opulent register than the more mineral Beaumonts or the powerful Brûlées, Les Chaumes touching Nuits-Saint-Georges on its southern boundary and carrying just a hint of that appellation's darker, spicier depth. A bouquet of violet, blackcurrant and fine spices leads to a plush, broad palate with a savoury structure and a chiselled finish — generous without heaviness, rich without excess.