Côte de Nuits

Though some white and rosé wines are produced in the region, the Côte de Nuits is most famous for reds made from pinot noir.

The Grand Crus of the Côte de Nuits are some of the smallest appellations in France, less than a hectare in the case of La Romanée.

Uniquely in Burgundy, Marsannay-la-Côte produces wine of all three colors - red and rosé from Pinot Noir, white from Chardonnay.

[3][4] Also among the northern villages, the vineyard soils of Chambolle are particularly chalky, giving the wines a lighter body and finer edge of aromas that complements the usual Côte de Nuits backbone of flavor notes.

While the quality of the wine was the envy of the empire, the emperor was told, the vines can only be planted on a narrow patch of land between marshy plains and infertile rocky hilltops, where winter frost would often devastate the crops.

[4] The Dukes of Burgundy and Valois, through their political influence and patronage of the church, would do much to spread the renown of the area for its unique and distinctive wines.

[9] The 17th century saw more vineyards come under the control of the bourgeoisie as the church landholders began selling their lands to the wealthy from the nearby city of Dijon.

[9] During the reign of King Louis XIV, his personal physician Guy-Crescent Fagon recommended that he drink only wines from Nuits St-Georges for their health giving properties.

[10][11] Wine merchants in the Côte de Nuits latched onto this royal association as a great marketing coup over the region's rivals in Champagne and Bordeaux.

The 18th century ushered in a period of tête de cuvée of wines made solely from the best grapes produced in single vineyards.

[5] Located near the 47th parallel north, the Cote de Nuits is one of the northernmost regions to produce premium quality red wines.

Historically Burgundian wine growers would uses the proportion of limestone to marl as a guide for what type of grape varieties would be most suited to the area.

If the area had a high concentration of marl, pinot noir was planted while Chardonnay would grow in vineyards dominated by limestone.

The marlstone of the region is made up of the marl, clay, sand and gravel fragments that came from the weathering of old mountain chains in the area such as the Ardennes.

The flow of streams and tributaries of the Saône contributes to the diversity of the vineyard soils by depositing alluvial sediments from their paths.

As you move upwards along the cote escarpment the soil becomes progressively less fertile with higher proportions of the well-draining and highly porous oolitic limestone and less clay.

The close plantings and tradition usually mandates manual harvesting of the grapes, especially for the premier and grand cru vineyards.

[1] The two primary grapes of the Cote de Nuits, pinot noir and Chardonnay, are believed to be indigenous to the Burgundy wine region.

Broadly speaking, pinot noir tends to be planted in areas with high proportion of marl while Chardonnay is most often found in vineyards that are dominated by limestone.

[6] Unlike other wine regions of France (such as Bordeaux), winemaking in the Cote de Nuits exist on a very small scale.

The individual style of the producer or negociant and the decisions they make at each step of the winemaking process — beginning with the sorting table as they grapes arrive from the harvest — will affect the resulting quality of the wine immensely.

The presence of stems provide channels for the juice to percolate through the mass of grape skins that will form the cap during fermentation.

This cap needs to be managed well and kept in constant contact with the juice in order to extract the color and phenolic compounds that will affect the flavor and aroma of the wine.

[1] The village of Gevrey-Chambertin (jehv ray sham ber tan) is noted for its full-bodied red wines, particularly those from one of its nine grand cru vineyard - Le Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Beze, Mazis-Chambertin, Chapelle-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, Mazoyeres-Chambertin, Griotte-Chambertin, Latricieres-Chambertin and Ruchottes-Chambertin.

Chambolle-Musigny (shom bowl moo sih nyee) is noted for the more elegant style of wines comes from its grand cru vineyards of Bonnes Mares and Musigny as well as its several high quality premier crus.

The village of Fixin (fee san) is noted for its earthy red wines, particularly those from its premier cru vineyard of Clos du Chapitre.

A higher quality AOC is the Côte de Nuits Villages, a general appellation for wines from five of the smaller communes : Fixin and Brochon in the north, Comblanchien, Corgoloin and Prissey to the south.

The Premiers Crus are the next level and roughly correspond to individual vineyards that weren't deemed good enough for Grand Cru status.