Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A superb wine, showing plenty of rich red-cherry fruit on the nose with earthy and woody spices and some rose-like perfume, too. The palate has precise, neatly defined tannins, is finely etched and is bathed in juicy cherry flavors that elevate perfectly through the finish. Drink now up to 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Nuits St Georges Aux Thorey, which is two-thirds whole-cluster fruit and 50% new oak, has a more modern, opulent bouquet compared to the Volnay and Pommard ‘13s previously: quite lush blackcurrant and iodine scents coming through with aeration. The palate is rounded and supple in the mouth, the new wood adroitly assimilated with the fruit and lending weight toward the harmonious finish. There is also an attractive spicy, lemongrass note on the aftertaste. This is showing great potential.
Range: 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.”
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.