Winemaker Notes
Located on the south slope of the village, the domain'es two parcels are assembled during the vinification. This Premier Cru heads uphill from about 800 feet above sea level. One finds a great complexity of soil, from the flush rock to the scree coming down from the top. Vines are an average age of about 50 years. This Premier Cru is a powerful and well-structured wine with good aging potentia.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
The age of the vines is quite diverse in this 1.8ha block, ranging from 20 to 80 years. It's a comparatively forward red, especially for a Nuits from the south side of the village. Notes of summer berries and tobacco pouch mingle appealingly on the nose and palate with supporting acidity and scented oak, 20% new.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers wafts from the glass with an appealing bouquet of raspberries, red cherries, spiced plums, dried flowers and earthy forest floor. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with a ripe core of fruit, tangy acids and a firm, stony finish. It's a suave, nicely integrated rendition of a climat that can sometimes be forbiddingly structural in its youth.
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.