2016 Nuits Saint-Georges Village

I tasted this year with winemaker Gregory Gouges’ cousin Antoine, who is in charge of the vineyards at the family domain. As the south side of Nuits-Saint-Georges was hit hard by frost—with mildew resulting in further losses—the estate produced just 16 hectoliters per hectare on average in 2016, with their top holdings in Les Vaucrains and Les Saint-Georges the most seriously affected. The estate began harvesting on September 26, with what Antoine described as “good phenolic maturity, between 12% and 12.5%.” There was almost no chaptalization here, except for the Bourgogne Rouge. Antoine told me that he kept eliminating the secondary buds through the summer to preserve overall ripeness levels. All of the fruit was destemmed in 2016. “It was hard even to carry out experiments in such a short year,” Antoine explained.