Winemaker Notes
To the eye, the wine is dark and purple. On the nose, blackberries dominate the nose, along with blackcurrants and blueberries. There is a more savage side exhibited in the notes of juniper and hawthorn. Even if in youth the nose is discreet, its class is always evident. On the palate, concentrated and deep, but with elegance primordial. The tannins are fine, but a certain firmness holds place. A welcome minerality supports the finish Drinking tips Its elegant structure marries well with dishes such as saddle of lamb, rib steaks or duck breasts.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, Rion's 2014 Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Argillières is tightly wound on the nose and needed more encouragement from the glass than its peers. It eventually offers dark cherries, bergamot tea and cranberry scents that gradually gather momentum. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, impressive purity, focused and energetic with an appealing sense of structure and harmony toward the poised, quite noble finish. This is a very well-crafted Nuits-Saint-Georges that should give 12-15 years of pleasure. Tasted September 2017.
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.