Wine
Regiions
Old World
France
Burgandy
Cote d'Or
Cote de Nuits

Nuits St. George

More stuffing, longer life, deeper color are the signs of a Cote de Nuits wine compared with a Volnay or Beaune. Very little white is made; what there is shares the qualities of the red. Fine line of Premiers Crus, wriggling its way along the hill, is threaded with clutches of Grands Crus. These are the wines which express with most intensity the inimitable sappy richness of the Pinot Noir. The line follows the outcrop of marlstone below the hard limestone hilltop. But it is where the stone has a mixture of silt and scree over the marl that the quality reaches peaks. Happily this corresponds time and again with the best shelter and most sun.

The wines of Premeaux, the southernmost commune, go to market under the name Nuits St-Georges. The two communes between them have over 900 acres of vines. The quality is very high and consistent: they are very strong wines, almost approaching the style of Chambertin at their best. They age well, have a particularly marked scent, and altogether deserve better than their reputation, which has suffered from la grande cuisine of the blending vats. Les St Georges is one of the best climate of the Cote; its neighbors Vaucrains, Cailles, Porets and Pruliers are comparable.

Nuits has neither hotel nor restaurant to speak of, but it is the headquarters of a number of negociants, some of whom make sparkling burgundy out of the year's unsuccessful wine. Vosne-Romanee is a modest little village. There is nothing to suggest that the world's most expensive wine lies beneath your feet. It stands below a long incline of reddish earth, looking up severely trimmed rows of vines, each ending with a stout post and a taut guy.