100% Pinot Noir.
Colour: deep ruby with purple highlights.
Nose: powerful and rich, with spicy notes mingling with aromas of red berries.
Palate: round, rich and complex, with strong, racy tannins. It combines black fruit aromas with a subtle woody finish.
Serve it with a haunch of venison, duck meat, and with roasted red meats or red meats in sauce. At the end of a meal, try it with French Coulommiers cheese followed by a black cherry pie. Enjoy also enjoy it simply as an aperitif.
Serve at a temperature of 16 to 17°C. (60-62°F.)
This wine can be opened now, but can also be kept in the cellar for another 10 years.
A communal appellation in the heart of the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy, halfway between Dijon and Beaune, harvested on the demarcated parts of the village of Nuits-Saint-Georges. It covers 304 hectares (143 of which are classified as 1er cru) and produces mainly red wines.
The diversity of the terroirs is due to variations in soil, orientation and location. The vineyard is divided by a valley, a river and the village. To the north, the soils are composed of stony silts from the Côte and alluvial deposits from the Meuzin valley. To the south, the deep silt and marl-limestone of the Combe des Vallerots dominate the lower slopes, while at the top of the hillside, the soil becomes rocky. Exposure east/south-east.
Traditional vinification: the grapes are destemmed and cold-macerated for 3 to 4 days before fermentation. Pumping over and punching down twice a day are carried out to optimise the extraction of good tannins. Fermentation lasts 15 days.
After the free-run juice and press juice have been blended, the wine is placed in barrels (30% of which are new) to mature on the lees for 12 to 15 months. Malolactic fermentation takes place here and is 100% complete.
2020 was notable for its mildness and low rainfall. After a winter with no serious frosts, we went straight into a spring dominated by sunny, dry weather, resulting in very early bud break. Infrequent outbreaks of rain in June and July were not enough to stave off water shortages.
Very high summer temperatures combined with intense sun exposure levels led to the vines gradually falling prey to hydric stress, causing delays to fruit ripening before harvest-time.
Once again, the vegetative cycle was shortened, being almost three weeks ahead of 2019’s. Thankfully, the harvest was saved by the relative cool of the nights. The harvest was of marvelous quality but there was very little juice in the red grapes (reduction of 30 to 50%), and reasonable potential alcohol, despite the heat.
The whites, on the other hand, coped very well with these extreme conditions and yields were very good.
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