Anson: All change at Burgundy’s Clos de la Commaraine

‘We haven’t found any pottery, so you are probably okay,’ one of the archaeologists calls out cheerfully to us on our arrival.

I can feel Jean-Luc Vitoux relax, just a little, besides me as he takes this in.

We are standing in front of two vast pits dug into the front garden of Clos de la Commaraine, the Monopole 1er Cru vineyard in Pommard that he has been in charge of running since November 2017.Behind us is the château building and, immediately beyond that, the 3.75ha walled vineyard. The château is right now stripped back to its skeleton, centuries of modifications and alterations removed, with medieval floors and windows exposed. The property was first build in 1112 and has thrown up constant mysteries; why, for example, are there doors that seem to go nowhere? Was there an entire extra floor at one point?

This time around, the renovations will see la Commaraine become a luxury hotel, restaurant and spa, although most likely not until 2021.

For today, though, renovations are on hold while the action centres around the pits. Clear outlines of half-submerged stone blocks in the ground in front of us trace the walls of an earlier structure. ‘Probably as far back as the 10th century’, says one of the two women from the Bâtiments de France carrying out the survey. ‘But without pottery or other artefacts its hard to accurately date.’

‘I am torn between intellectual interest at finding remains here, and knowing that any finds could hold up the renovations by months or longer,’ admits Vitoux, a former lawyer from Champagne and now a Burgundy wine producer and négociant.

Vitoux – whose legal expertise covered viticultural acquisitions and regulations for many years – is the man on the ground for Boston-based American financiers Denise Dupré and Mark Nunnelly, owners of a rapidly-growing French wine empire.

I came across their biodynamic Champagne house Leclerc Briant when researching for my Wine Revolution book. It was their first French winery investment back in 2012.

More recently, their stunning Royal Champagne Hotel and Spa near Epernay opened to international fanfare in July 2018, helped perhaps by the fact that one of Dupré’s former roles was as dean of the Boston University School of Hotel Administration.

‘It seems hard to believe that this particular American-led operation is not going to gain in status and importance.’

Whether this experience soothes or alarms their new Burgundian neighbours is up for debate.

They have had to get used to American arrivals in recent years, of course – Stan Kroenke at Bonneau du Martray, for one, and Grace and Ken Evenstad at Château de la Crée in Santenay, among others.

‘The jury is out I would say,’ says Vitoux, ‘but we hope to show that we are going about things in the right way’.

This latest chapter began in 2017 with the purchase of the 22ha Domaine Belleville in Rully and négociant house and winery Manoir Murisaltien in Meursault, followed later that year by a long-term tenancy agreement for Clos de la Commaraine. Reports have suggested an investment of around €30 million.

Since then, things have moved pretty fast.

All three estates are now in organic conversion, and various soils studies have been carried out to better isolate and identify terroirs.

The grapes from Clos de Commaraine were being sold in their entirety to Maison Louis Jadot on purchase, but the new owners have taken them back in-house, and sold off 4ha of land that they didn’t feel was of high enough quality for their plans.

Comte Louis-Michel Liger-Belair of Château de Vosne-Romanée agreed to come on board as consulting winemaker as of the 2018 vintage, working with full-time winemakers Charles Nébout and Isabelle Laurand.

There are expansion plans to expand as and when high-quality parcels become available, and a new micro-négociant business launched in the meantime.

Spotting new boutique négociants has become something of a sport in Burgundy recently. As land prices climb, more and more people are choosing the route of buying grapes or juice and creating their own brands.

A possible road map for Les Parcellaires de Saulx can be found with Pascal Marchand, who comes from Montreal (although in Burgundy since 1983) and who launched his own high-quality micro-négociant business with Canadian financier Moray Tawse back in 2010. Today he works with partner-growers to create extremely high quality wines from 51 appellations and 25 climats, with unfiltered and unfined wines, and biodynamic principles wherever possible.

But it seems Vitoux already has very particular ideas for the new négociant. Launched in October 2018, Les Parcellaires de Saulx takes its name from a former 15th-century owner of Clos de Commaraine, and so far has 21 wines from 21 plots, with one climat and one winemaker per bottling.

For the whites, they buy grapes or must and vinify in Meursault, while for the reds they select instead finished wine, and oversee the barrel ageing, until a new red wine cellar is completed later this year. All purchases are of organic or biodynamic grapes where possible.

‘The aim is to avoid blending and bottle only single climat wines from single producers, which makes us a little different from many Burgundy négociants,’ says Vitoux.

‘Even our village Mercurey will, as of the 2018 vintage, be split into two separate named plots to ensure we reflect the different climat expressions. For now we are making 30,000 bottles per year, and our methods make it unlikely that we will be able to go above 50,000.

‘We buy from well-known producers and pay a little above market value to ensure that we are attractive to the right people. But in Burgundy it is never just about the money. We are able to convince them to work with us because they appreciate the approach.’

Clos de la Commaraine will be similarly terroir-led. The 3.7ha are now split into 10 plots, all harvested and vinified separately.

‘Last year we had 60 barrels in total from the grapes. We sold on 25 barrels as 1er Cru Pommard but not under our name, and have a further 35 that we ageing and tracking as they develop.

‘We are simply trying to understand the terroir right now, analysing the effect of different rootstocks, clones, massal selections and so on. We will decide, together with Liger-Belair, how much to release under the Commaraine name later this year. We are looking to bottle the most elegant style of Pommard and don’t want to compromise.’

I tasted through a sampling of both Domaine Belleville and Les Parcellaires de Saulx after spending the morning visiting the vineyards in Rully, Meursault and Pommard, so that when we were back in the cellar Vitoux could point out, ‘that’s the one by the old tennis court’, or ‘that’s the one from the south-facing slope that we walked up to’.

The majority of the wines to date are Côte de Beaune or Côte Chalonnaise – a place that is quickly gaining in importance and buzz right now.

Rully in particular seems to be benefitting from big names arriving from the Côte d’Or – I was taken the back there the next day by Domaine Drouhin – and from wines being bottled by individual estates rather than anonymous cooperative cellars.

More Côtes de Nuits climats are due over the next few years, and it seems hard to believe that this particular American-led operation is not going to gain in status and importance.

Certainly having Louis-Michel Liger-Belair on board should help soothe local sensibilities, and on the evidence of this tasting, Belleville, Commaraine and Saulx are names to watch.

Tasting Domaine Belleville and Les Parcellaires de Saulx wines: