Winemaker Notes
With its well-defined character, this wine perfectly illustrates the identity of the Nuits Saint Georges vineyard. Complex aromas of blackcurrant mingled with spicy blackberry are revealed on the nose with, depending on the vintage, darker notes of licorice, leather and blood orange. The well-built mouth affirms itself with density and strength around a tight structure with rich, well-wrapped tannins. It becomes increasingly seductive over time, which comes from the elegance, intensity and purity of the fruit.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Complex nose of red berries, savory and wet earth with just a hint of candied citrus peel. Quite a bold and seriously structured wine with excellent depth for the challenging vintage, but nothing even remotely approaching a hard edge. This will need some time to give its best, but the balance is there at the simultaneously crisp and velvety finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Best from 2025.
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Vinous
The 2021 Nuits Saint-Georges Clos des Forêts Saint Georges 1er Cru is more expressive than the Clos de l'Arlot on the nose: vivid scents of raspberry, cranberry, sous-bois and just a very slight steeliness. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp, almost angular tannins, fresh and very tensile, quite saline to the extent where I fully agree that any stem addition would have been superfluous. Persistent and graceful on the finish, this is superb.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Jasper Morris
Dense red to crimson. The bouquet is a little more closed than Les Suchots, but with a suggestion of a fair intensity of fruit to follow. Prettily floral, cherry and raspberry too, this is rather stylish, still with a little biscuit note from the barrel, like many of these wines in their youth. Without being in the style of the blockbuster vintages, there is still good energy here for the future. Drink from 2027-2033.
Barrel Sample: 91-94
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.