Winemaker Notes
The high-altitude position of the plots used for making this wine explains that ripening of these grapes is always slower than for other plots of the estate. The style is always lively when this wine is very young. Afterwards, deliciousness of fresh fruit is the main feature in the character of this fresh, pleasant Burgundy.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of blueberries, strawberries, lemon zest and cinnamon stick. It’s medium-bodied with soft tannins and bright acidity. Lively and gently spicy finish. Just a hint of vanilla. Drink now or hold. Better with a year or two of bottle age.
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.”
The origin of perhaps the world’s very finest Pinot Noir, Côte de Nuits is the northern half of the Côte d'Or and includes the famous wine villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Flagey-Echezeaux and Nuits-St-Georges.
Fine whites from Chardonnay are certainly found in the Côte de Nuits, but with much less frequency than top-performing reds made of Pinot noir. The little village of Nuits-St-Georges in its southern end gave the region its name: Côte de Nuits. The city of Dijon marks its northern border.