The Côte de Nuits

The Côte de Nuits stretches for just over twelve miles in a narrow band, seldom more than a mile wide. It lies between two notable cities, Beaune, the tiny and historic agricultural center, and Dijon, the modern and urban center of high cuisine. Its most favored vineyards face east along well-drained, mineral-rich slopes. The entire district has fewer than 9,000 acres of vineyards, less than some California counties have planted in recent years. The Pinot Noir grape dominates, covering about 90% of the surface of the district. The few white wines made in the Côte de Nuits are invariably Chardonnay. In almost no case is either grape mentioned on a wine’s label. The Côte de Nuits is all about place.

Just north of the city of Beaune the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune come to an end with the famous red and white vineyards of Corton. After a couple of miles of interruption, vineyards reappear in a very narrow band. Here begins the Côte de Nuits with the southernmost reaches of the Nuits-St-Georges appellation. A tiny line of “premier cru” vineyards stretches from Prémeaux to the town of Nuits-St-Georges. It resumes north of town and continues to the boundary of Vosne-Romanee. Alongside the premier crus, a significant part of the remaining vineyards are well favored enough to yield very fine wine indeed, just not premier cru. The relative uniformity of slope and soil of this section yields reliably fine wine with more intensity and greater longevity than common for pinot noir. As is the norm in Burgundy, a “village” wine will be labeled simply “Nuits-St-Georges” whereas any wine coming from a single notable parcel (especially one rated premier cru) will append the vineyard name e.g. “Nuits-St-Georges Clos de la Marechale”.

At Vosne-Romanee, just north of Nuits-St-Georges, begins a seven-mile stretch of the finest red wine vineyards in Europe. The successive tiny sections are Vosne-Romanee, Flagey-Echezeaux, Vougeot, Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-St-Denis, and Gevrey-Chambertin. Throughout this stretch even the premier cru sites are eclipsed by the highest rated vineyards of all, the Grand Crus. La Tache, Le Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot, Les Musigny, Chambertin, Chambertin Clos de Bèze, and eighteen other top sites of varying sizes identify circumstances that have resulted in the finest wines for hundreds of vintages. Not only is each village along the route cited for special conditions and individual character, each named vineyard also has a character of its own.
Fixin, just to the north of Gevrey-Chambertin, lacks any grand cru vineyards but offers excellent village wine and a couple of fine premier crus. Marsannay, the northernmost village appellation of the Côte de Nuits, offers quite attractive reds and notable pinot noir rosé.

Blended wines from throughout the region are labeled Côte de Nuits Villages. Such wines come from sites just outside the boundaries of the named villages, sites deemed inferior to the rather high norm of the region, and from the “declassified” production of the famous vineyards. Another form of declassification occurs when a producer decides to label a premier or grand cru with the simple village name.

Even beyond the nuance of slope, soil, and exposure to the sun, the wines of the Côte de Nuits vary greatly from one producer to the next. Then there are questions of vintage and bottle aging. But those are topics for other days.

10/04

  Back to "Articles"