This commune which gave its name to the Côte de Nuits had a little-known claim to fame. In the book “Autour de La Lune” (“Around the Moon”) written by Jules Vernes in 1870, three men took a journey to the Moon and they celebrated their achievement with a bottle of Nuits-Saint-Georges. In a gesture honouring the novelist’s vision, the crew of Apollo 9 mission (James Divitt, David Scott and Russell Schweikart) after visiting the Aeronautic Centre at Le Bourget, were inducted as members of La Confrèrie des Chevaliers du Tastevin by Bernard Barbier, Grand Maître of the Confrèrie as well as Sénateur-Maire of Nuits-Saint-Georges, on 30 May 1969. The following day, at the Mairie of Nuits-Saint-Georges, the party was present at the naming of a barrel of Nuits-Saint-Georges as Cuvée Terre-Lune 1969. Two years later, in May 1971, the crew of Apollo 15 mission: David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin, passed by Clos de Vougeot after their trip to the Aeronautic Centre at Le Bourget, and they were presented with 6 bottles of Nuits-Saint-Georges Cuvée Terre-Lune 1969 for them to take back to Florida. On 25 July 1971, the Mairie of Nuits-Saint-Georges received a telegram from Cape Kennedy, saying that David Scott and James Irwin wished to name one of the lunar craters where they landed on 31 May 1971 as Saint Georges in honour of Jules Verne’s book “De La Terre a La Lune” ("From the Earth to the Moon") written in 1865.
The name “Nui” was first mentioned in 1060 at the Abbaie de Saint Vivant de Vergy. The origin of the name could have come from an ancient word for a flooded valley or the word for a walnut tree, which was very common in the area before 1709. The wines of Nuits gathered fame during the 15th Century under the rule of the Valois Dukes. In 1680, Dr. Fagon prescribed the wines of Nuits to Louis XIV, saying that old wine had marvelous healing effects. All this attested to the excellence of Nuits wines. The current name of the village Nuits-Saint-Georges was formalized in 1892 and thus solved a political debacle around the naming of the railway station in the village (to differentiate from another station also with Nuits as part of its name). During the 19th Century, the climats of Les Didiers, Les Saint Georges and Les Vaucrains were already well know but somehow they were not requested for promotion to Grand Cru status by the Mayor nor the President of the Appellation of Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1936.
Earlier this week, a group of Hong Kong’s trade and media professionals braved the local Black Rainstorm warning and joined the comparative tasting and live broadcast masterclass on the diversity of Nuits-Saint-Georges organised by the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB). This edition of the “Rendez-Vous avec les vins de Bourgogne” took us to the heart of Nuits-Saint-Georges vineyards and shared with us the insights of two winemakers, Jérôme Flous, Wine and Vineyard Manager of Domaine Faiveley and Thibault Liger-Belair and their favourite climats in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Winemakers have long respected the multiplicity of this relatively small appellation on the Côte de Nuits, with 41 Premier Cru climats, each with its distinct personality. Nuits-Saint-Georges wines can come from 2 communes, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Prémeaux-Prissey, covering just around 300 hectares, with 160 ha at the village level and 140 ha at the Premier Cru level. Nuits-Saint-George wines are not all red, but the white vineyard area is a mere 3% of the total vineyard area.
Nuits-Saint-Georges could be masculine or feminine, depending on whether you’re at the northern end butting Vosne-Romanée where softer-textured wines with more finesse and complexity tend to be shaped or at the southern Prémeaux end, where the soil contains more clay, giving fuller-bodied and more structured wines. Jérôme Flous said Nuits-Saint-Georges could be an Asian elephant at the northern end, round and tame, whereas the southern end was more like an African elephant, wild and robust. His two favourite climats were Les Porrets Saint-Georges, robust and structured with dark fruit and almost prune like character, and Les Damodes, much more refined, with spicy aromas and juicy fruit. Thibault Liger-Belair chose Les Saint Georges and Les Boudots as his two favourite Nuits-Saint-Georges climats. For him, the former represents the quintessence of Nuits-Saint-Georges, with structure and finesse, whereas latter is all about elegance and softness, being next door to Malconsorts in the Vosne village.
The masterclass included one village lieu-dit Les Argillats and 5 Premier Cru climats, covering Les Damodes and Aux Chaignots at the northern end of the Nuits commune, Les Procès and the celebrated Les Saint-Georges from the southern end of the Nuits commune and one climat from the Prémeaux commune, Aux Perdrix, not to be confused with Aux Champs Perdrix at the northern end of Nuits.
The geology has much to account for the distinct characters of each of the 6 wines, as does winemaker/domaine style. Here in Nuits-Saint-Georges, the closed valleys named Combes in the Côte de Nuits, are much wider and the river Meuzin flows through the valleys, bringing with it a wide alluvial fan with pebbles and silt deposits at the northern end. At the southern end, the alluvia originated from La Combe des Vallerots and the soil at the foothills contains deep marly limestone. In some areas the clay has high iron oxide content, as in Les Saint-Georges.
The masterclass included one village lieu-dit Les Argillats and 5 Premier Cru climats, covering Les Damodes and Aux Chaignots at the northern end of the Nuits commune, Les Procès and the celebrated Les Saint-Georges from the southern end of the Nuits commune and one climat from the Prémeaux commune, Aux Perdrix, not to be confused with Aux Champs Perdrix at the northern end of Nuits.
The geology has much to account for the distinct characters of each of the 6 wines, as does winemaker/domaine style. Here in Nuits-Saint-Georges, the closed valleys named Combes in the Côte de Nuits, are much wider and the river Meuzin flows through the valleys, bringing with it a wide alluvial fan with pebbles and silt deposits at the northern end. At the southern end, the alluvia originated from La Combe des Vallerots and the soil at the foothills contains deep marly limestone. In some areas the clay has high iron oxide content, as in Les Saint-Georges.
Nuits-Saint-Georges can be divided into 3 parts. The first part forms border with Vosne-Romanée until the river Meuzin, with 240 metres at the lower end and 350 metres at the top end. Some vineyards are fully facing east, such as Les Damodes and others are fully south-facing, such as Aux Argillats (not the same as Les Argillats tasted in this masterclass). Here we have Les Damodes, Aux Boudots, Aux Chaignots and La Richemone as examples of premier cru climats. The second part begins on the other side of the Meuzin valley and finishes at La Combe des Vallerots. Here we have Les Pruliers, Les Procès, Les Vaucrains and Les Saint-Georges as premier cru examples. The third part is in the Prémeaux commune and it is a much narrower strip with climats as Clos l’Arlot, Clos de la Maréchale, Les Didiers, with hard compact limestone at the top of this strip.
The characteristic finesse and concentration of Les Saint-Georges is due to the topsoil of pebbles deposited from La Combe des Vallerots, helping drainage and acting as heat-traps, and also the high clay content giving structure to the wine. It is located at the border with the Prémeaux commune, where the wines tend to show fuller body and more richness. This is evidenced by the richness and concentration of the Aux Perdrix example by Domaine des Pedrix in the line-up. This is one for the long haul but is not entirely unapproachable now, with richness of ripe fruit coupled with chewy tannin and full-bodied concentration. By comparison, Les Damodes tends to display more elegance and freshness due to its higher altitude and more complexity from the long maturation as a result of its full-eastern exposure. The sample by Frédéric Magnien may be more driven by the winemaker’s style. The Drouhin Les Procès also bears hallmarks of the house style, with its characteristic finesse, understated power, and subtle influence of oak from extended seasoning, despite the high clay content of the climat. Les Argillats combines the freshness from the altitude and the balance and concentration from the vintage of 2014.
2013 was a difficult vintage but the samples tasted showed balance and remarkable freshness. 2014 showed much more concentration and ripeness but it was beautifully balanced as a vintage, without any heaviness at all.
The question of whether Nuits-Saint-Georges would one day have a Grand Cru to justify the quality of its wines still hovered and Jean-Pierre Renard of the Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne gave nothing away!
The wines tasted were:
Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Argillats, 2014, Domaine Philippe Gavignet
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Damodes, 2013, Domaine Frédéric Magnien
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Chaignots, 2014, Faiveley
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Procès, 2013, Maison Joseph Drouhin
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Perdrix, 2013, Domaine des Perdrix
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Saint-Georges, 2014, Maison Chanzy
Thibault Liger-Belair believes that there are wines for lunch and there are wines for dinner. Nuits-Saint-Georges is definitely a wine for dinner, he says, to be enjoyed slowly, with emotion, with friends. “Never open a bottle alone….and remember: The last glass is always the best.”
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