Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
According to Claude de Nicolay, the east-facing slopes of the Ile des Vergelesses provide a marvellous terroir for Pinot Noir. She has 2.80 hectares in Pinot and 1.20ha in Chardonnay. Her favourite block is the hectare of vines planted in the 1960s. This old-vine massale selection vine material is the jewel and has given a forward supple wine with aromas of black cherry and plum. The texture is lithe and easy, yet there is enough tannin on the finish to convince us to age it — a delight.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Always the insider's choice at this address, the 2022 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Ile de Vergelesses unwinds in the glass with aromas of sweet cherries and plums mingled with rose petals and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, ample and velvety, with a fleshy core of fruit that nicely cloaks its fine but chalky structuring tannins, it exhibits excellent potential.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Jasper Morris
The holding, three hectares planted to pinot, consists of one hectare of old vines from 1961. There is a little more density to the colour, and certainly a most profound bouquet which shows more classical fruit and less the effects of vinifying with whole bunches. 15% new wood shows a little in its extreme youth. A spicy dark fruited finish. Barrel Sample: (91-93)
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.”
Occupying the most northerly combe (the French term for a valley that cuts through a hillside) of the Côte de Beaune, Pernand-Vergelles sits to the west of and behind the hill of Corton. The most sought after whites of the village come from the slope of Pernand on the side of Corton where Pernand-Vergelles shares the Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne with Aloxe-Corton. The best red producing Cru is Les Vergelles, which overlaps into Savigny-les-Beaune. Reds here are fleshy, seductive and structured while whites are both lively and age worthy.