Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at Flint Wines’ 2007/2012 Nuits Saint-Georges tasting in London. The 2010 Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots from Mugneret-Gibourg has a pretty, generous and quite detailed bouquet with red plum and dark cherries, fine mineralité and a palpable sense of energy. The palate is medium-bodied with supple red and black fruit, silky smooth in texture with a ripe and beautifully balanced finish that still needs a couple of years to reach its peak. This is a fabulous Chaignots from Mugneret-Gibourg. Tasted November 2016.
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.