Tasted in Nuits St.Georges with Antoine Gouges, 26 April 2024.
Domaine Henri Gouges
7 Rue du Moulin
21700 Nuits St.Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 04 40
www.gouges.com
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Antoine on 2024 so far:
“Lots of rain. When the frost was forecast, I hesitated to light some candles but in the end, I didn’t as it would only have been for my own confidence and not really for the vines. Also, in our Hautes Côtes we may have lost a bud here or there but we know that it was significantly worse in some other places. We prune twice and only start in March so that makes a big difference… Our second ‘cut’ needs 3 weeks for the whole domaine.”
Antoine on 2023:
“I think it’s going to be a variable vintage but there’s tasty fruit and concentration which I think will bring a lot of pleasure – and we had really good volumes – 45 hl/ha which is the maximum that we target.”
Antoine on 2022:
“It was 27 hl/ha in 2022 for us, like in 2021. In 2022 we had two passes of hail in June – nothing to affect the quality but one villages vines lost 70% – a little was lost in Pruliers too. It’s been a few years that we have had some small hail incidences in the south of Nuits. We started harvesting at the end of August for the white – St.Georges was around the 2nd of September and we finished in the Hautes Côtes around the 8th. Easy fermentations – both of them – in 2022. We use quite a lot less sulfur today than was once the case so that makes for a different, softer, extraction too. The 22s have all bottled, finishing in March 2022 with Pruliers. Half of the domaine’s production is the Nuits Villages and the Clos des Porrets, Les St.Georges is only 3% of the domaine… We have made no price changes for our 22s – we hope that the wines are to be drunk !!”
The wines…
What a super range – wines that you could carafe and drink already at the weekend – if they were already commercial, which they are not! But the depth, purity and textural class are apparent for all to see – you will be well rewarded with these bottles in the future.
2022 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Dames Huguettes
On the top of the hill above and behind the domaine – vines sit on the limestone – a thin soil with plenty of clay. This was blended into the Bourgogne before 2017 – a cuvée reserved for the French market. Fully destemmed.
A high-toned floral note – heading towards acacia – red fruit too. Lovely in the mouth, very fluid, melting with fresh flavour with a small accent of tannin – tiny-grained. That’s a delicious and already very accessible wine – not on sale before September though.
About 10 different plots – 4 from behind the domaine and the remaining more on the Premeaux side at the bottom of the hills.
A fine width of freshness – and more of a suggestion of depth today. Really direct but widens and melts over the palate – the little grain of tannin supporting but not drying. Fine flavour depth here. That’s got a fine finishing texture too – give it 5 years – it will be a great villages…
2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Chaignots
Vines on the Vosne side of Nuits.
Airy, transparent top notes then a pretty depth – not a large aromatic today but I really like the clarity here. Calm, mouth-filling, the tannin framing the flavour here but velvet textured and with no visible grain – extra sparkle and energy to these more sappy finishing flavours. I’d be keeping this also a good 5 years in the cellar – despite how approachable it already is…
2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Chênes Carteaux
‘One of the lightest from this part of Nuits on quite a steep incline with lighter – not really any problems with wild pigs or deer but there’s competition for grapes with the badgers. A small terroir, less than 3 ha – Dufouleur, Dupaquier and Serveau (Bichot) plus our plot of about 1 ha of roughly 80-year-old vines – it’s a very draining and steep soil that works very well in warmer vintages.’
More forward, lots of high tones of stony fruit, and slowly a very pretty perfume – that’s elegantly lovely! Very stylish, beautifully textured and fluid – an elegant Nuits – no discussion – but this caresses the palate – different, very accessible, almost Chambolle-like – that’s simply excellent!
2022 Nuits St. Georges 1er Clos des Porrets St.Georges
3.6-hectare monopole and the largest of the domaine. Maybe ‘Porrets’ was a field of pears…(?) Middle of the hill, really well exposed under the quarry – ‘it’s nearly 25% of our production. Lots of vine ages, of course – the youngest are more than 35 years old but the oldest are now about 120 years old.’
Broader, it’s a fuller nose with some overt floral expression – nice! Cool fruit depth and energy – here is more power and more dimension of flavour – extra finishing weight and extract too. A very different beast, chalky finishing, but this is simply excellent – you would be forgiven for not realising that the last two wines come from the same village !!
Impressive high-tones, and there’s depth too, but overall, this is a narrower, more vertical nose. More air brings more width – the volume just keeps growing. Cool but supple – I love this structure and so often with Pruliers – slowly juicy finishing – this will be a great one but you really have to wait – if you have a case then by all means try a bottle occasionally but this will be great in around 10 years+
Set higher than Pruliers but not as steep as Chênes Carteaux
The largest width of aroma – deeper florals. Large scale but here is a fluidity that balances the concentration – the texture is beautiful today – more silk than velour. The finishing power is immense but balanced – cool but pure fruit again. I love this fading finishing flavour energy. Potentially a great wine!
‘For the centenary of the domaine in 2019 we used the old label of the domaine and now we have decided to keep it.’
Width and airy complexity – even faint spice and menthol to this nose – very complex. Supple, a certain fluidity here too but this wine shows some extra depth to the bass notes. Tannin that shows no grain, just a small finishing dryness and a hint less finishing energy than the Vaucrains but at the same time with a little more to find. Beautiful wine – and a calmer more contemplative finish vs the more overt energy of the Vaucrains – but all these wines are developing with air – my notes are just snapshots
And their whites:
2022 Bourgogne Pinot Blanc
Higher vines near the Dames Huguettes
A nicely forward freshness here – depth of aroma too. Mouth-filling, some generosity but with a growing mouth-watering incisiveness – the two make for a fine balance. Wait a year I think but it’s delicious…
This is pinot blanc/Gouges. ‘It’s not easy to work here – it was an old quarry and now it’s an oven! You don’t want to work here on a summer afternoon…’
That’s got a really impressive width and depth of aroma – almost graphitic and red – I suppose it’s pinot noir but white! Mouth-filling but with extra clarity and finer structure than the Bourgogne. Large, almost ‘unfinishing’ such is the length – this is maybe longer than the reds. Not yet fully delicious but I think with a small amount of patience it will be great !