Winemaker Notes
100% Pinot Noir from vines planted in 1953.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Nuits Saint-Georges Aux Thorey 1er Cru is expressive on the nose: wild strawberry, sous-bois and touches of crushed violet gradually unfold and seduce. The palate is silky smooth on the entry, candied orange peel filtering through the shimmering red fruit with a refreshing and precise finish that urges you back for more. Wonderful.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Jasper Morris
No darker in colour but with a beautiful bouquet suggesting depth and freshness together. Well-judged and adds to complexity. Adequate density in this theoretically lighter year, a few tannins from the oak at the back, but all nicely integrated with a fine long finish.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Thorey bursts with aromas of sweet plums, red berries, orange zest and petals, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and perfumed palate that's pretty and fine-boned, concluding with a saline finish.
Barrel Sample: 90-92
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.