Nuits St-Georges Premier Cru

This vineyard sits across the road from the house, with quite deep (two metres) topsoil over marne. Very typically Nuits, there’s plenty of black fruit and sweet spice on the nose, while the palate offers red and black cherry, and some floral touches. Weighty, dense and concentrated with a rocky, limestone texture to the tannins; it’s deep, dense, complex and age-worthy. Drink 2023-2030.

Patrice explains that the hard work they did at the start of the year in pruning short and carrying out a severe de-budding, as well as a little green harvesting on younger vines, paid dividends in terms of avoiding excessive yields and consequent dilution. The dry and warm conditions towards the end of the season allowed them the luxury of choosing when to harvest, in fact beginning on 9th September. Patrice compares the vintage to 1979 and 1989, highlighting the wines’ impeccable balance and freshness (the latter he prefers over power) as particular strengths. Our notes indicate whether the wines are domaine or négoce bottlings.

Les Porêts was the first vineyard the Faiveleys ever bought. This wine has fair depth of colour, quite gentle and graceful, with medium weight but impressively long. Unusually for the house style, some whole bunches (15%) have been used to lighten the density of central Nuits-St Georges and confirm this as a stylish wine. Medium, deep, red fruit, and very persistent.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

The new era at Faiveley is now into its sixth vintage and the house style, which allows the fruit to express itself in a very seductive manner while enhancing the individual qualities of each terroir, has been safely established. Now the management is concentrating on reinforcing their supplybase with some crafty contracts and vineyard purchases in both Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. We may be able to offer more cuvées in the future, and though opportunities are clearly limited by the 2012 vintage circumstances, we have been well looked after this year.

 

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.

Patrice Rion and his wife Michèle began their own small domaine in 1990, but have since expanded. Alongside their domaine wines, Patrice makes a small range of négociant cuvées. He has recently been joined in the business by son Maxime. Patrice’s style is for very pure, harmonious wines, skilfully vinified and then matured in oak barrels with a well-judged percentage of new oak (usually 50 percent new) for 18 months, without racking or fining.

The blend for this Nuits-St Georges, Clos des Argillières is of fruit from the old vines (1945 and 1954) mixed with a few barrels of younger vines (1979). A fabulous, sumptuous nose of plums and Morello cherries wafts from the glass, while the palate has lovely weight and a fine, mineral finish, without the harder edge occasionally found in the past.

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.

As with all Thibault’s wines this year, there is an impressive marriage between stony minerality and the richness of fruit that is derived from fully ripe grapes. This is a beautifully rounded, succulent wine from Nuits’ greatest vineyard.

Bright purple, smooth, rich, this fills out in the middle and the back, with dark ripe fruit, very fine quality tannins and excellent persistence. Fruit swarms back at the finish. Really good plant material here apparently. It certainly tastes that way.
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Harvest began during the last week in September and finished just before the storm. There was less whole bunch vinification for the wines affected by hail, but Volnay Taillepieds, Pommard Rugiens, Corton Clos du Roi and the wines from the Côte de Nuits were all predominantly vinified with their stems.

Brilliant purple with a magical intensity of fruit, an absolute explosion of dense raspberry notes, great fruit weight on the palate, with energy and well integrated acidity. Exceptional length. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Despite this being a very late season, Patrice compares 2013 to the fruit of early vintages such as 2007 and 2011, but with more stuffing. It also reminds him of 1980, a particularly successful vintage chez Rion. The 2013 crop is a small one though, a touch more than 2012 but less than 2011. They employed two sorting tables, and since the grapes which reached the vats were all healthy, they used less sulphur during vinification.
 

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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An amazing intensity on the nose of this classy wine is immediately appealing, with lifted aromatics and a good density of fruit within. Bright red fruit expresses itself wonderfully, with hints of a little tangerine note and fresh acidity.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director This domaine continues to deliver exceptionally high quality wines and is surely now one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Vosne-Romanée. The harvest began on 31st August in 2011 and that is the earliest ever at this domaine. Etienne Grivot was happy to pick at 12 to 12.5%, seeing no value in waiting and losing acidity. The wines have a dramatic tension to them in youth and will certainly age exceptionally well.

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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.

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 Nuits-St Georges from Domaine de Bellene has been vinified with all its stems but this does not show in the aromatics. There is an amazing sense of energy at the back of the palate, as well as a clearly defined structure which will enable this to age for the long term.

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.

Only four barrels were made this year, when more than a dozen could be expected. This is the vineyard just across the road from the house, with quite deep (two metres) topsoil over marne. It’s deep, powerful and very typically Nuits-St Georges. It’s intense; Maxime offered cerise bigareau , which could be maraschino, and is a good call, but there is cherry stone too. Serious, but not too long-term. Drink 2024-2032.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

Patrice Rion and his wife Michèle began their own small domaine in 1990 with just two wines, Bourgogne Rouge, Les Bons Bâtons and Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras, while Patrice was still working as winemaker with his family at Domaine Daniel Rion. In 2000 Patrice left the family business to develop his own estate further. Today most of the vineyards are in Nuits-St Georges and Chambolle-Musigny. Recent vintages have seen the increasing involvement of Patrice’s son Maxime. The Rion cellar is a bit emptier this year, partially because of the frost but also, more significantly, because their arrangement in Chambolle for Villages, Fuées, Amoureuses and Bonnes Mares has terminated, and 2015 was the last vintage of those lovely wines. Maxime Rion initially found the 2016s a little “monolithic” after fermentation, but they have discovered their terroir in barrel. The vintage shows more red fruit than black, with the fruit of frosted vineyards having more colour. The long, cool end of season reminds him of 1996 but, whereas that vintage is only starting to drink now, the 2016s will open up earlier. The estate also has a new wine, a Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits from the Dames Huguettes vineyard. It’s made from bought-in fruit, but chosen from an especially well-sited and tended vineyard.

Goodness, this is impressive. Of course, this is a great terroir, which, combined with the vintage, has created a very connected, virile wine. Think of the DNA helix (or, more classically as Thibault proposed, the knot garden at Versailles), with pinpoint vivid fruit, beautifully sprung tannins and shimmering acidity comprising the strands. Drink 2024-2034.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

In 2001 Thibault took over an old family property in Nuits-St Georges, reclaiming the vines which had been contracted out to various share-croppers. The family jewels ( his branch) consist of Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot and Nuits-St Georges Les St Georges, to which he has added further vineyards and a few cuvées made from purchased grapes. The vineyards are certified organic and farmed biodynamically, with horses used to plough the vineyards where possible. The oak regime is not to exceed 50 percent new barrels but also not to use any barrels more than three years old. Thibault has also developed several single-vineyard bottlings of Moulin-à-Vent (Beaujolais). In summer 2017 Thibault opened a new, environmentally friendly cuverie which harnesses geothermal and solar energy and recycles rainwater. Thibault Liger-Belair is a busy man. He has his fascinating project in Moulin-à- Vent (find his Cru Beaujolais wines on page 55) as well as overseeing the forestry and manufacture of the barrels for all his wines, and experimenting with very light toasting. Overall, he is quietly satisfied with this year’s results. He continues to work with varying levels of whole bunches and is trialling a refinement which involves removing the thick, central stalk of bunches, to leave mini-bunches. He was especially badly hit by frost in the Hautes Côtes and Chambolle but elsewhere this is a relatively happy cellar.

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.