Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet color, bright like a gemstone. The aromas are as intense, but elegant. They are reminiscent of cherry jelly with hints of wood and balsam, or cedar. With age, the aromas take on gamey touches. On the palate, the wine displays flesh as well as structure and a velvety texture. Very flavorful aftertaste, evoking fruit syrups and spice infusions.
Pinot Noir is well-suited to pair with poultry, beef, fish, ham, lamb and pork. It will play well with creamy sauces, spicy seasonings and may just be one of the world's most versatile food wines.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A dense, fleshy red, whose black cherry and blueberry flavors ride a wave of lively acidity and dusty tannins. Overall, this is balanced and silky, with ample ripe fruit and concentration to match the structure. Mineral and spice accents add detail. Best from 2024 through 2043.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Procès (Domaine) is showing nicely in bottle, mingling aromas of sweet red berries and plums with hints of raw cocoa, smoke and sweet soil tones. Medium to full-bodied, supple and satiny, with a fleshy core of fruit, melting tannins and a long, heady finish, my only criticism focuses on a touch of back-end heat, so this would be best served on the cool side.
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Vinous
The 2018 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Procès 1er Cru has a well-defined bouquet of brambly red berry fruit, woodland scents and light pastille aromas that gain intensity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy tannins and fine acidity. A little rough around the edges at the moment, but there is fine backbone and a lovely seam of salinity toward the long and increasingly spicy finish. Very fine.
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.