Winemaker Notes
The Hautes-Côtes de Nuits Rouge comprises a significant portion of Hoffmann-Jayer’s production, coming from 2.4 hectares of vines planted in several plots: Les Mailles, La Flie, and Sous le Mont in Magny-lès-Villers, and Les Chasserots in Villers-la-Faye. These 50-year-old vines produce a wine more savory and earth-tinged than its Hautes-Côtes de Beaune counterpart, although the aging process is identical: two-thirds in 20% new oak and one-third in terracotta, and bottled without filtration after 18 months of élevage.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Several parcels in Magny-lès-Villers are blended with grapes from the lieu-dit Les Chasserots in Villers-la-Faye for this cuvée. The grapes are destemmed and gently fermented before ageing over two winters in 30% new casks to produce this wine, with a rich, surprisingly resonant plum and blackberry fruit and a hint of violets. The texture is unexpectedly dense, but the fruit’s structure and freshness balance it and carry it to a lovely, lingering finish. Well done.
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James Suckling
This sleek and bold red Burgundy has a stack of savory and earthy character on the nose, then gives you a blast of red and black berries plus a touch of candied orange peel on the medium- to full-bodied palate. Excellent aging potential. Drink or hold.
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.”
The origin of perhaps the world’s very finest Pinot Noir, Côte de Nuits is the northern half of the Côte d'Or and includes the famous wine villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Flagey-Echezeaux and Nuits-St-Georges.
Fine whites from Chardonnay are certainly found in the Côte de Nuits, but with much less frequency than top-performing reds made of Pinot noir. The little village of Nuits-St-Georges in its southern end gave the region its name: Côte de Nuits. The city of Dijon marks its northern border.