BOURGOGNE HAUTES-CÔTES DE NUITS

BOURGOGNE
HAUTES-CÔTES DE NUITS 2021

click on one of the vintages below for further information

2020 2021 2022 2023

Grape variety

100% Chardonnay.

Tasting notes

Colour: A beautiful, strong golden colour.
Nose: Very expressive, almost exuberant and very seductive, with woody notes and hints of vanilla. A trace of honey, white flowers and citrus notes.
Palate: Delicate and perfumed, well-balanced and round. Its meatiness and woodiness come from the time spent maturing in oak casks; this also gives the wine better ageing qualities than many other white burgundies under the "village" appellation.

Wine and food pairing

It will be the perfect companion to carp roe (tarama), steamed fish, and crustaceans. Its vivacious nature equips it to accompany the Burgundian specialties of ham with parsley (jambon persillé) and snails (escargots). Fully mature, the wine goes very with the delicacy goose liver with salt (foie gras au sel) and French cheeses such as Roquefort, Aisy cendré, mature Comté, Chaource.

Serving temperature

Ideal served at a temperature of around 12°C (54 °F).

Ageing potential

This wine can be drunk now or laid down for around 3 to 5 years.

Origin

Regional appellation of the Hautes Côtes vineyard district (dept. of Côte-d’Or). Officially recognised since 1961, this appellation covers 16 communes of the Hautes Côtes district in Burgundy, plus the more elevated areas of 4 communes in the Côte de Nuits.

At one time apparently doomed to disappear these vineyards have undergone a patient, courageous, and ultimately successful restoration. Overlooking the slopes of Gevrey-Chambertin and extending as far as the wood of Corton, the Hautes Côtes de Nuits have a wild beauty. Little villages nested in the forest fringes lie waiting to be discovered. The vineyards cover all these slopes which enjoy favourable exposures and proudly preserve their proof of nobility going back to Vergy and the abbey of Saint-Vivant.

The vineyards are located at heights of between 300 and 400 metres and occupy the sides of valleys which cut into the Jurassic limestone plateau to the west of the « Côte ». The underlying rock is the same as that of the Côte but the overburden is thin or non-existent. The soils are formed by a mixture of eroded limestone and marly subsoil.

Vinification and maturing

Vinification in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks followed by maturing in tank and in oak barrels for a part of the cuvée (40%) for 8 months, including 15% new oak. Blending and light filtration before bottling.

Vintage : 2021

Nature certainly set a challenge for the winegrower and the winemaker with this vintage.

It began with very warm temperatures at the end of February which led to an early bud break. The historic frost in April then destroyed young shoots that had emerged too early, significantly affecting the future harvest. Changing weather continued to characterize the vintage through to the harvests. There were spells of rain from May to mid-August, obliging winegrowers to be constantly on the alert. The only periods of relative calm were during flowering, which took place in good conditions for the formation of the future fruit, and the véraison (colour change), which benefited from the return of the sun from mid-August. The vagaries of the weather contributed to the development of outbreaks of disease, which were contained thanks to the tireless efforts of our winegrowers. In spite of this, considerable sacrifices had to be made to ensure a high level of quality, and rigorous sorting of the fruit in the vineyard and on arrival at the winery was necessary.

This vintage also required a major technical effort. The vinifications had to be carried out with meticulous attention and precision with a particular care over the extraction of colouring matter, the balance of the structure and the aromatic expression of the red wines, and of the freshness, balance of acidity and aromatic potential of the white wines.

BOURGOGNE HAUTES-CÔTES DE NUITS 2021