Nuits St-Georges Premier Cru

From Faiveley’s first vineyard, which was purchased in the 1830s, comes this lovely, bright, mid-red purple wine. It’s very perfumed with some delicious ripe cherries; this is very pure, precise and refined on the palate with a very persistent finish.

Erwan Faiveley believes that 2014 would be regarded as a great vintage – if only 2015 had not come along to trump it. He feels that the changes which have taken place in the cellar since 2007 have had a discernible effect on the quality of Faiveley wines, while similar qualitative changes in the vineyard are only now bearing fruit. Here, balanced but restricted yields are the key.

Etienne Grivot has emerged as a star name in Vosne Romanée and neighbouring Nuits over the last few vintages. This is a superb cuvée of village Nuits, fine and fresh with abundant energy and a subtle range of red and black fruit flavours. Impressively persistent.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Buyer)

Nuits St Georges is renowned for its rich, weighty wines, the most stylish of which come from the Vosne-Romanee side of the appellation. Amongst these Aux Lavieres is a well thought of lieu-dit beneath premier cru Les Murgers.

A whole raft of very intense blueberry, blackberry and even blackcurrant flavours dominate the palate. Sumptuous, extraordinarily intense, and held together by fine, firm tannins.
(Jasper Morris, MW, BBR Burgundy Buyer)

A triumph from the first sight of its brilliant bright purple colour. Ripe blackberries and plums make up a sumptuous mid-palate exuding all the warmth of the vintage. Waves of flavour continue right through to the very persistent finish. Drink 2012-2020.

Beautiful bright purple in colour and with a really attractive nose of oak and seamlessly integrated fruit, this wine has a lovely middle ground of dark fruit. A superb village wine.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director

This has been one of the most exciting cellars in the whole of Burgundy for the last few vintages, a fact which is beginning to be reflected in the pricing. The significant reduction in crop this year, which Etienne Grivot ascribes more to the extreme winter cold than poor flowering, is also a factor. Etienne has been working hard to refine the tannins in his wines, and has surely succeeded in 2010, by producing wines of great energy but with suave, sophisticated finishes. These are brilliant wines that unfortunately, are in short supply.

Really well concentrated, this earthy Nuits-St Georges Les St Georges 1er Cru from Thibault Liger-Belair blends truffle notes with an abundance of plummy fruit to create an ultra rich style.

Mingling plums and prunes with weight and depth, this wine is initially restrained but it is all there. A huge volume of flavour develops on the palate, revealing a wealth of fruit and some tannins. This is perfectly in balance for the long term, and marks a big step forward for Thibault. Jasper Morris MW,Berrys' Burgundy Director 2011 was a relatively easy year in the vineyards for Thibault, as there were no problems with health. The main decision was the date to pick (from 5th September) which he chose by leaf colour as an indication of the end of the vine cycle. He employed very gentle vinification this year to keep the fruit fresh. Thibault has been moving towards and elegant style, a little bit away from the plumpness of his early wines. He manages this through shrewd judgement on the use of stems and particular attention to the type and toasting of wood to be used. He is especially proud of his ‘tartare’ barrels with minimum toasting.

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Just 12hl/ha were produced in 2010, one third of the normal crop. Fortunately, the wine that has been made is majestically concentrated, with a lovely full purple colour, exceptionally rich mouth filling dark red fruit, fresh but ripe tannins and outstanding persistence. This is really brilliant wine!
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director

There is a marvellous sense of energy in Thibault Liger-Belair’s 2010 wines, perhaps his finest vintage to date. This is a vintage where the wines express the characters of their terroirs very well. Thibault decided on a longer than usual vinification but with very little active extraction and fewer stems than in 2009. Where Thibault purchases grapes (Aloxe-Corton, Chambolle-Musigny) his team manages the vineyard work after the initial pruning.

A ludicrously small yield, but it is really good this year. Fine, bright, deep pink and purple with very heady fruit and a vast mouthful of energy, much livelier than in some of the earlier vintages. Strongly recommended. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

The vintage began here on 6th October, once again being short on quantity but with good qualitative potential. Thibault feels that the 2013s can take a long barrel ageing, perhaps up to 24 months. He is using fewer lees, but finer, in order to avoid too many reductive problems.

This Nuits-St Georges Lavires from Jean Grivot has a heavenly nose, with a little Vosne-ish perfume sitting on a bedrock of Nuits. There is perfectly integrated oak, making this a really classy wine with beautiful aromatics all the way through.

This is a rich dense purple, with electric energy along with the expected weight of fruit and a touch of oak behind. Long and lovely, the fruit is on the cusp between red and black. Faiveley is very strong in Nuits-St Georges and this is an excellent example. Drink 2022-2030.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Two changes to note in the Faiveley style this year: the diminution of new wood, a trend they plan to develop further, and the use of 25 percent whole bunches in the vinification for 2015, whereas previously it was very rare to use any. They maintained their practice of punching down rather than pumping over, and the combination of these points leads to wines which are more rugged and structured than their recent vintages. The harvest was completed between 2nd and 11th September.

Sporting a noble, imperial purple colour, this wine stands out in every department. It is classic Nuits-St Georges in the depth of dark fruit, broad-shouldered, powerful rather than flamboyant; yet with a superbly fresh, almost saline, finish. Drink 2024-2034.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

While delighted with the health and quality of his grapes, Thibault felt that it was necessary to adopt a light hand with extraction this year, as phenolic ripeness was only just in place. Sugar levels were correct, acidity in the end just what was needed, so his wines have the typical energy of 2015. There are a few more whole bunches than usual. As always, the wines take longer in this cellar to come round but we were impressed with the potential.

Burgundy 2012 En Primeur - Staff Favourite
Bright red and black fruit, rich and velvety on nose. Delightful black fruit on the palate, rich and pure, but with some fine, grippy tannins keeping it all in check. Yet another triumph from the talented Pierre Vincent of Domaine de la Vougeraie.
Chris Pollington, Fine Wine

The Clos comprises three hectares in all, but half is being replanted. The rest are 40-year-old vines. There is deep red fruit on the nose which blossoms gloriously in the glass and continues on the palate, leaving a rosy glow behind. A spectacular debut vintage.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

This superb domaine grows in reputation and also in size: this year sees the first vintage of Nuits-St Georges, Clos de Thorey. Look out for even further additions in the next two years. Winemaker Pierre Vincent’s style is for lighter colours and very sensual wines and he has done a cracking job again in 2012; a vintage which supported the plentiful use of whole bunch fermentation. The domaine is certified organic and fully biodynamic.

This was one of the first vineyards acquired by Faiveley, bought by them in the 1830s. After Les St Georges, this is one of the best Nuits vineyards and, although on quite deep gravel, it is notably expressive, with notes of woodland and hedgerow over a dense, rich palate. Drink 2022-2027.

Faiveley began picking on 2nd September in Meursault, while the first Pinot Noir was harvested in Volnay and Pommard on 4th September. Their red Grands Crus were picked between 9th and 14th September. They compare their reds to 2007 and 2011, although they say the 2017s have a fleshier palate. As previously there has been some considered use of whole bunches in the fermentation for some selected smaller vineyard parcels. For the whites, they consider 2017 to be an outstanding vintage with powerful, rich and intensely aromatic wines.

Thibault included just 30 percent whole bunches this year, which allowed him to work the fruit a little harder, extracting more colour and flavour from the grapes. That is not to say that the wine is extracted; indeed, there is a real finesse and elegance to this which one might not typically associate with Nuits. The flavours are subtle and delicate, with suggestions of rose petals and violets and a touch of cassis. Drink 2023-2033.

Thibault continues to keep himself busy, having bought more vineyards in Moulinà-Vent. In the Côte d’Or he waited until 13th September to pick, feeling that the skins were not ripe until that point. He describes the vintage as transparent, where each vineyard’s identity is clearly visible, and one where those with large yields will not be able to hide. In the Beaujolais, hail was again a significant factor, reducing the average yield for those wines he made to an eye-watering 8hl/ha. The damage was so bad that it cost more to pick the grapes than he will make on the wines, but he felt a duty to harvest and vinify the fruit. With careful use of the vibrating sorting table, he was able to carefully select only the clean fruit and has made exceptional wines.