Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Dark and mysterious, with intense flavors of black currant, black cherry, licorice, mint and toast permeating the lush texture. The firm tannins build as this finishes long, echoing fruit and spice details. Best from 2021 through 2035.
-
James Suckling
Bouchard own one hectare of the total of three in this 1er Cru parcel, in the south of the appellation. The chalky soil delivers elegance here, with aromas of ripe dark cherries and a fragrant, expressive nose with a lot of violets (30-40 per cent whole clusters). The palate has a very smooth, supple and flavorful feel with some attractive compression of fine tannins. Long, rich dark-cherry finish. Drink in the first decade.
Barrel Sample: 91-92 -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Made from one of top premier crus of Nuits-Saint-Georges, the 2017 Les Cailles explodes with power. TASTING NOTES: This wine is a powerful expression of the grape variety. Its aromas and flavors of black fruits are almost too opulent. Pair the wine's firmness with a Chateaubriand. (Tasted: March 14, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
-
Jasper Morris
Medium deep darker red, with a slightly smudged ripe fruit nose. There is plenty of fruit weight with some blackcurrant notes. More precision would be even better but there is plenty to work with here.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Attractive aromas of raspberries and cherries mingling with nuances of blood orange, grilled squab and dark chocolate introduce the 2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Cailles, a wine that's showing substantially better than it did from barrel in December. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, showing good depth and dimension at the core, fine but chalky structuring tannins and good length on the finish.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Inhabiting the bottom end of the northern half of the Côte d’Or, Nuits-St-Georges is a busy, market-driven town and home to many of Burgundy’s negociants. It is also the largest town in the Côte d’Or after Beaune and contributes "nuits" to the name of Côte de Nuits (i.e., the northern half of the Côte d’Or).
The appellation itself is divided into two parts, where in the north it directly borders Vosne-Romanée, the southerly end is the commune of Prémeaux. There are no Grands Crus in this village, though it does have a large number of Premiers Crus.
The best Nuits-St-Georges Pinot Noir are layered with cherry, plum, underbrush and sandalwood. The fruit is sweet, the wine energetic, and the finish long and lush.