Last week the sales team flew out to Burgundy to visit a number of our agencies and amongst many highlights, one Domaine that really stood out was Henri Gouges in Nuits St Georges.
In the early 1900s, Henri Gouges, mayor of Nuits St Georges, was one of the largest landholders in the region. He was heavily involved in the INAO (Institut National d'Appellation d'Origine) along with the Marquis d’Angerville in Volnay and was at the forefront of a revolutionary project to delineate the various Crus and also to persuade local winemakers to take up domaine bottling rather than selling all their juice to negociants who would usually blend every barrel together and release the wines simply as Cuvee 1, Cuvee 2 etc. Henri was indeed the first producer in Nuits St Georges to start domaine bottling his wine in the early 1930s, when he created his eponymous Domaine. As one of the largest landholders in the region, Henri had significant holdings in the famed Les St Georges vineyard, but, not wanting to be seen as giving himself an unfair advantage, he insisted that no vineyards should be proposed for Grand Cru, even though Les St Georges was, and still is, widely believed to produce wines of Grand Cru quality and at the time the wines often sold for more than many other of Burgundy’s Grand Crus. In fact an application was recently filed with the INAO re-opening the case for its promotion to Grand Cru. There are currently 41 separate 1er Crus in the region.
The Domaine now has 15 hectares of vines in Nuits St Georges, the majority of which are in the southern part, close to Premeaux (Clos des Porrets, Pruliers, Vaucrains, Chenes Carteaux and Les St Georges) which generally produce the richer, more masculine and age-worthy style of Nuits St Georges. Their only holdings in the Northern part, towards Vosne Romanée are in the 1er Cru Chaignots, which produces a softer, more feminine style that can usually be approached earlier. The wines of Domaine Henri Gouges are well known for their incredible ability to age and traditionally they have been completely unapproachable, sometimes for up to 20 years after the vintage, but more recently, current winemaker Gregory Gouges has strived to give the wines more approachability whilst still retaining their ability to age. Picking is all done by hand and the Domaine uses organic practices, so vibrating tables are used for grape sorting but mostly, according to Gregory, to get rid of the huge number of insects! The bunches are 100% destemmed in every vintage as according to Gregory ‘there is enough tannin in Nuits already without adding it from the stalks.’ There is minimum intervention in the winery and never any correcting – for instance they did not acidify in 2003 nor did they add tannin in 2004 so there are clear vintage variations across the wines – in fact the Domaine has always gone by the maxim ‘it is whilst still on the vine that a fine wine matures.’ Fermentation takes place in concrete tanks which keep the temperature stable and only minimal new oak is used in the elevage, which usually lasts around 18 months before the wines are bottled.
During our visit we tasted through a range of the soon to be released 2013s, all of which showed excellent purity and pretty fruit and whilst the 2013s are not quite as concentrated as the 2012s or 2010s they certainly have the stuffing to last for many years in the cellar and should provide enormous drinking pleasure in the years to come. After tasting a short range of wines going back to 2009 we were treated to a sumptuous and incredibly generous lunch with some truly wonderful and extraordinary wines, finishing off with two examples that clearly showed just how well these wines can age. First we were wowed by a fully mature but wonderfully elegant Pruliers from 1970, which was still holding up well after 44 years but even more of a surprise was the last pair of dusty, mouldy bottles that were opened. Most of us guessed the wine must be from the 1950s or 1960s but when its identity was revealed it was truly a revelation. The wine was from 1936, a wine that had been hidden along with a number of other bottles in a walled up cellar which had succeeded in staying hidden from the Nazi occupiers during the Second World War. Gregory asked us to guess the Cru and of course we all presumed it must be Les St Georges or Vaucrains, but no, it was none other than the estate’s entry level wine, the monopole Clos des Porrets. At 78 years of age the wine was truly ethereal, a wonderful experience and a real treat. Considering how well these wines have aged, anyone with an eye to long-term cellarage should definitely be putting a few cases of this domaine’s wines away for as long as they can resist. Whilst 1936 is regarded as a very good year for Red Burgundy, it was certainly not as good as 2009, 2010 or 2012, all of which are available in this offer. A short selection of recommendations follows:
Nuits St Georges Clos des Porrets 1er Cru 2009 @ £390 – one of the estate’s two monopoles, we saw one with a beautiful texture and serious ageing potential. Buy this and forget it for at least 10 years.
Nuits St Georges Les Chenes Carteaux 1er Cru 2010 @ £350 – situated on a strip of land between Les St Georges and Vaucrains this is clearly a very special wine at a bargain price!
Nuits St Georges Les Pruliers 1er Cru 2012 @ £465 – made from vines up to 70 years old, Pruliers produces wonderfully intense mineral wines and this 2012 is up there with the best.
Edward Stafford-Deitsch
Edward Stafford-Deitsch
