Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Nuits St. Georges Les Vaucrains is one of the more delicate wines next to some of the other 2010s. It shows gorgeous fleshiness in its layers of dark red fruit, spices and flowers. The Vaucrains is all about textural elegance and volume. The sensual finish makes this very hard to spit. Today the Vaucrains comes across as silkier and more finessed than the St. Georges, suggesting it may come around a bit earlier. That may also just be wishful thinking on my part. We will see. This is another breathtaking wine from the Chevillon brothers.
Range: 94-96
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.