Cote de Nuits
Named after its principle village of Nuits St Georges, the Côte de Nuits forms the northern half of Burgundy’s legendary Côte d’Or, a 20km strip stretching from Dijon to Nuits St Georges, with the best vineyards found halfway up its slopes where growing conditions are at their best. With 22 of the region’s 23 red Grands Crus, most of the world’s great Pinot Noirs are made here, along with a small number of high-quality Chardonnays.
Learn more about Cote de Nuits
Named after its principal village Nuits St Georges, the Côte de Nuits forms the northern half of Burgundy’s legendary Côte d’Or (‘golden slope’).It is a compact 20km strip running south from Dijon to Nuits St Georges with the best vineyards (Premiers Crus and Grands Crus) situated halfway up its slopes where the drainage, exposure and soils are at their best.
With 22 of the region’s 23 red Grand Crus, this is Pinot Noir country; most of Burgundy’s (and indeed the world’s) great Pinot Noirs are made here, along with a small number of high quality Chardonnays, including one tiny Grand Cru (Musigny). Quantities are minute, certainly compared with Bordeaux, and prices for the very best wines are thus high. Quantitatively however, the wines account for less than five percent of the region’s production.
It is the most northerly region in Europe making great red wines, and for that reason getting the Pinot Noir grape to ripen before the wet autumn sets in is always a challenge. In addition, the region is often hit by vicious hail and heavy rain during the growing season that can cause dilution and rot.Along with the Côte de Beaune, it is the most elaborate classification in the world, where the influence of terroir is most keenly felt. It is also the most fragmented: Clos de Vougeot’s 50ha, for example, is split between more than 90 growers.
The wines express many different styles but in general are weightier, firmer and more deeply-coloured than their Côte de Beaune counterparts. Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot and Nuits St Georges tend to produce more robust, masculine wines, while Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée are all finesse and elegance.
Côte de Nuit Villages wines can be made from a small number of villages, mostly in the far north and south of the Côte. They are usually red in colour, and are often good value. Hautes Côtes de Nuits is also mostly red and produced in the hinterland to the southwest of Nuits St Georges.
Prices:
Bottle
£22.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl23cs
“Those who did the work in the vineyards will find it paid off in 2014”, opines Laurent Fournier. There is no problem with concentration if the yields were reasonable. He went through the vineyards twice, at the end of August and again just before picking, to remove any bunches he was not happy with. Even then he discarded two small plots of Clos du Roy so as to ensure that what made it to barrel, and then bottle, was first-rate. As indeed it is.
Bottle
£22.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl163cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
This is our first vintage with Domaine Bart, who makes wines of lovely understated grace and elegance. They had decent yields in 2013, just 10% below a full crop. Overall they have good colour and acidity with a fresh and cheerful fruit.
Bottle
£23.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl41cs
Bottle
£23.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl9cs
Bottle
£23.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl19cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Laurent reports a difficult start to the season, with mildew pressure, while the flowering went better in the late sectors than the earlier ones. A good, healthy crop though, so Laurent was able to use some whole bunch fermentation. Rich fruit but high acidity is the hallmark of the year, he thinks. The harvest began with Clos du Chapitre on 4th October and finished by the 12th.
Bottle
£23.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl120cs
Bottle
£23.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl35cs
Bottle
£24.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl70cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
One of the brightest talents in the northern Côte de Nuits is Laurent Fournier who runs the estate which carries his father’s name, as well as being the man in charge of the dossier for defining some Premier Cru vineyards in Marsannay. We have been hugely impressed with his wines for several years and are now offering them En Primeur for the first time. There is a quality of fruit here which fully reflects the joys of the Côte de Nuits, yet at rather more affordable prices.
Bottle
£24.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl12cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director The new premises in Chorey-lès-Beaune remain something of a building site externally. However, inside everything is in place for making fine wine, while upstairs an apartment has almost been completed for Sylvain, his wife and new baby. The whites have been a great success here since Sylvain’s first vintage (2007), while 2012 marks huge progress on the red wine front. A refined approach to the vinification process has produced much more perfumed fruit and has avoided the reductive aromas which sometimes used to appear.
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl12cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Sylvain began to pick his 2013s on 30th September. Some whites have been in bottle since early July, and some reds may also be bottled a little earlier than usual. Sylvain doesn't see a long elevage this year as he wants to avoid the whites becoming too fat. The reds have 10 to 20% whole bunch fermentation.
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl62cs
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl35cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Laurent reports a difficult start to the season, with mildew pressure, while the flowering went better in the late sectors than the earlier ones. A good, healthy crop though, so Laurent was able to use some whole bunch fermentation. Rich fruit but high acidity is the hallmark of the year, he thinks. The harvest began with Clos du Chapitre on 4th October and finished by the 12th.
Bottle
£26.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl16cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Sadly this is the last vintage from David Clark, as the finest Scottish vigneron in Morey St Denis has decided to embark on a new career. Although the growing conditions were difficult early in the season, he ended up with healthy vines and no rot at all. Happily for him, and for us, he has finished his distinguished career as a vigneron with three superb wines.
Bottle
£26.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl7cs
The Clos du Roy is one of the top vineyard sites of Marsannay, and this wine is in its optimum drinking window now, displaying aromas of apricot and toast, with a lovely finish of stem ginger and cleansing lime juice.
Bottle
£28.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl2cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
One of the brightest talents in the northern Côte de Nuits is Laurent Fournier who runs the estate which carries his father’s name, as well as being the man in charge of the dossier for defining some Premier Cru vineyards in Marsannay. We have been hugely impressed with his wines for several years and are now offering them En Primeur for the first time. There is a quality of fruit here which fully reflects the joys of the Côte de Nuits, yet at rather more affordable prices.
Bottle
£29.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl4cs
Bottle
£29.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl15cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
This is our second vintage with Claire Naudin-Ferrnad and the first in the En Primeur catalogue. Don’t be put off by the simple Hautes-Côtes appellation, these are fascinating wines. The 2013 vintage was not an easy on to manage, though the grapes were all picked by 7th October and, as elsewhere in Burgundy, the wines have continued to improve in barrel.
Bottle
£32.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl12cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Quantities were down a further 15% on the previous two vintages. However Nicolas Rossignol reports that there were no problems in vinification, and they have added a further refinement this year with a new state-of-theart de-stemmer, which leaves the individual berries whole as it takes them off their stems. Given the natural concentration of the fruit in 2012, there was no need to seek much extraction. Once again this domaine offers superb quality at reasonable prices.
Bottle
£35.00
From vines currently undergoing organic conversion, Benjamin Leroux has fashioned this delicious Nuits-St Georges; a wine with a vibrant bouquet of red cherries and fresh plums, and lovely, rich, ripe fruit across the palate. Drink this suave and succulent Burgundy with poultry, lamb or rare roast beef.
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl161cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl38cs
Patrice Rion compares 2014 to a mix of 1979 and 1989 for the aromatics and delighted to have been able to pick a more or less normal-sized crop. He began on 12th September with healthy grapes, reinforced by his system of two sorting tables, one before and one after de-stemming. The amount of new oak has been reduced here, now just 30 percent on most cuvées.
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl63cs
88/90 Neal Martin eRobertParker.com #222 Dec 2015
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl16cs
The good thing about having a domaine shared between Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits is that you are unlikely to sustain hail damage in every vineyard in any given vintage. The bad thing is that your Côte de Beaune vineyards will have suffered three years in a row. So this year we concentrate on Gevrey-Chambertin, where Louis’s results are excellent in 2014.
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl55cs
When Virgile Lignier came back from his brief summer holidays, he toured the vines and saw a bit of rot on a biggish (by recent standards) crop, so he took a substantial team round to remove damaged bunches and anything unripe. He picked the healthy grapes from 17th September and gave the new vintage a long but light extraction. He has made some very succulent, juicy wines here in 2014.
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl15cs
Our jovial friend Jérôme Castagnier has excelled himself this year. The promise we picked up on last year has really been delivered in 2014. He says that the wines have lovely flesh but also a beautiful freshness, and notes some similarities to 2010. His generic Burgundies (available on www.bbr.com/burgundy2014) are also excellent.
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl7cs
Nicolas and David Rossignol began the harvest on 22nd September, picking over eight days. Yields were up, the grapes were ripe, but some sorting was necessary after a little hail in Beaune and some Suzukiengendered rot in the lower vineyards of Gevrey-Chambertin. They are very pleased with their new Pellenc de-stemmer which leaves the berries intact, while continuing to use a percentage of whole bunches as well.
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl37cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl95cs
When Virgile Lignier came back from his brief summer holidays, he toured the vines and saw a bit of rot on a biggish (by recent standards) crop, so he took a substantial team round to remove damaged bunches and anything unripe. He picked the healthy grapes from 17th September and gave the new vintage a long but light extraction. He has made some very succulent, juicy wines here in 2014.
Bottle
£37.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl7cs
Bottle
£39.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl16cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Laurent reports a difficult start to the season, with mildew pressure, while the flowering went better in the late sectors than the earlier ones. A good, healthy crop though, so Laurent was able to use some whole bunch fermentation. Rich fruit but high acidity is the hallmark of the year, he thinks. The harvest began with Clos du Chapitre on 4th October and finished by the 12th.