The Fine Wine Review

In the latter part of the twentieth century, Chanson, a Beaune négociant dating to 1750, was known for tannic, old-style (not necessarily in the best sense of the term) wines. 

In 1999, the Bollinger Champagne house acquired Chanson, including its vineyards. Following a labelling scandal shortly after the sale, Gilles de Courcel was hired to head up operations, and then Jean-Pierre Confuron was handed control over vineyard and winemaking  operations. Confuron is the brother of Yves Confuron of Domaine Confuron-Cotétidot in Vosne-Romanée and of de Courcel’s eponymous estate in Pommard. Working with the same methods as the home estate in Vosne, such as late harvesting and use of all whole clusters. Horses are used to plough the vineyards, which are organically cultivated.

New oak is 30% for the wines, tending to François Frères for reds and Damy for whites. 

Chanson now owns 45 ha, all on the Côte de Beaune, which in a normal year supplies about a quarter of the total production (which extends from Chablis down to the Beaujolais). 

All of the wines below are estate wines except for the Gevrey-Chambertin and the Corton.

As this sampling of the reds (and the sampling of the whites to follow) shows, this is a producer worthy of your serious attention. (Continue reading here.)