NUITS ST. GEORGES PREMIER CRU PAULEE SHOWS DISTINCTIVE TERROIR

Followers of this Blog will know the enthusiasm of the members of the Vancouver Branch of Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin for Paulee style wine events. The last one was Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru posted here on September 2, 2025 for a 16th anniversary of white Burgundy. Our first Burgundy red wine Paulee experiment is linked here of April 22, 2024 spotlighting Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru. On November 18, 2025 at Quan Ju De Duck House Restaurant we tried our second red wine focus featuring Nuits St. Georges Premier Cru. The logistics are certainly much easier for a white wine Paulee where the aperitif idea works well for tasting and there is more time to study the many contributions over a longer reception period. However for red wine it requires a difficult break in the meal service after the bubbles and whites with a much shorter tasting window. Next time we need an all red wine meal and/or a longer time frame during a late lunch to allow more time for serious study and contemplation of these Paulee treasures.

We started with the consistent classy POL ROGER CHAMPAGNE family house in Epernay since 1849 this one the ROSE from the highly acclaimed 2008 VINTAGE. Lovely structured full red fruits with creamy textures. Your scribe spent an enjoyable lot of time studying and admiring his fav Perrieres vineyard in Meursault from an outstanding producer Latour-Giraud making even finer more elegant wines over this last decade. We compared:

2015 MEURSAULT PERRIERES LATOUR-GIRAUD: Light yellow with riper aromas. Full rich smooth softer textured taste of stone fruits. Deliciously round and yet energetic now.

2011 MEURSAULT PERRIERES LATOUR-GIRAUD: A shade lighter with more fresh stony austere minerals. Wonderful subtle flavours with balanced lees complexity. A runner-up to the classic 2014 in that admirable distinctive Perrieres style.

There were some 25 different Nuits St. Georges Premier Cru wines from 2022 back to 1989 available to sample (including two en Magnum) and match with the exquisite restaurant celebrated duck and other tasty courses. Many top producers shown and different vineyard selections. Most prominent vineyard with 7 wines was “Les Vaucrains” from Chevillon (09, 08, 04, and 01) and Gouges (09 & 03) showing that big powerful muscle structured more tannic style requiring bottle age softening. Your scribe commented on the wines and was laudatory to the Perrieres but compared NSG a little bit like Bordeaux’s St. Estephe in style having early on a more rustic backward robust statement that requires aging to come together. Hard to generalize but often the northern vineyards of NSG have a more delicate floral elegance while those south of the town are tending to robust power. Liked hot year LES VAUCRAINS 2003 HENRY GOUGES and underrated LES VAUCRAINS 2001 ROBERT CHEVILLON. My favourite younger NSG was the outstanding fresh vibrant low yielding concentrated 2021 LES CHAIGNOTS GEORGES MUGNERET-GIBOURG with a fantastic best future ahead of it. Find some bottles of this excellent NSG!

Fun comparing clearly the Grand Cru wannabe LES SAINT GEORGES vineyard preferred over the others. Two examples of it both FAIVELEY with 2014 elegant but rather light while 1989 (long time last bottle cellared by your scribe) deep dark youthful singing brilliantly a memorable solo (very mature 1989 LES POULETTES CHRISTIAN GAVIGNET-BETHANIE as the sensual accompaniment).