Winemaker Notes
Dark ruby red in color with red fruit aromas and roasted, smoky notes on the nose. The palate is rich and oily with good structure and a perfect balance between finesse and strength. The silky tannins give this wine a harmonious mouthfeel. Serve with foie gras and apple filo pastries, lamb shank, duck breast, and deer in redcurrant sauce.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Concentrated and succulent, this is a really sophisticated Nuits-Saint-Georges with seductive, floral and spicy aromas and just a hint of sweet, vegetal aroma (from the stems of the 20 per cent whole bunches in the ferment). Very long, complete finish that suggests this has great aging potential. Try to wait until at least 2022.
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Decanter
Aux Chaignots is located on comparatively rich, deep clay soils, where the Faiveley holdings were planted in the early 1960s. This sees 40% new wood and has plenty of texture and aroma, with some Asian spices, nice focus and more minerality and freshness than you might expect from the terroir.
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Jasper Morris
A little darker in colour, with a slightly sombre first nose, while the fruit builds nicely to a generous finish. There is a certain stemmy spiciness, but the stems have ripened well, while they help to balance the thicker texture of this wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Exotic aromas of smoked duck, dark wild berries, baking chocolate and spices introduces the 2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Chaignots, a medium to full-bodied wine with tangy acids, satiny structuring tannins and a deep core of sapid, pungently spicy fruit. It's a definite success.
Barrel Sample: 90-92
Founded in 1825, Bourgognes Faiveley has been handed down from father to son for over 175 years. As the sixth generation to take the reins, François Faiveley manages, with equal amounts passion and competence, the largest family domaine in Burgundy. Methodically reconstructing vineyards fractured by French inheritance laws, Bourgognes Faiveley today owns more appellations in their entirety (monopoles) than any other domaine in Burgundy.
"Faiveley’s wines are... supremely clean and elegant: definitive examples of Pinot Noir... above all they have richness and breed, the thumbprint of a master winemaker."
-Clive Coates M.W.
Côte d’Or, A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy
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.