Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits 2021 – Jean-Claude Boisset

The grapes to produce the Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Jean-Claude Boisset were whole-bunch pressed for 2.5 hours. The must was cooled to 12˚C and transferred directly into 450L oak barrels without settling in order to keep the wine in contact with the lees. Fermentation took place over 10 months, before the wine was aged in toasted French oak barrels (20% new) without racking or bâtonnage to accentuate the more delicate, mineral qualities of the wine. The wine was very lightly filtered and fined, and bottled using gravity.

The Hautes Côte de Nuits vineyards run parallel to those of the Côte de Nuits but are situated at a higher altitude. This wine comes from 1.05ha of organically certified Chardonnay vines. They are 35 years old on average and are planted at a density of 3,500 vines per hectare. The vineyard is east-facing and planted on limestone soil, which gives the resulting wine great freshness and fine minerality.

Jean-Claude Boisset is a family-owned wine company founded in 1961. Jean-Claude’s first parcel of land was located in Gevrey-Chambertin and today the company is based in Les Ursulines, a former convent in Nuits-Saint-Georges, and run by his children Jean-Charles and Nathalie. In 2018, they opened a new state-of-the-art winery, which reflects their modern, technical approach to winemaking. In 2002, Jean-Charles recruited Grégory Patriat, who had previously worked at the legendary Vosne-Romanée producer Domaine Leroy, to revitalise and reinvent the house. He transformed Boisset into a ‘viniculteur’, working closely with the growers, guiding the wines from vine to bottle to achieve the desired quality. In order to create concentrated, beautifully well-rounded wines which are naturally expressive of their individual appellation, Grégory practises minimal intervention winemaking. Each plot is picked separately and hand sorted to ensure optimal maturity. Sulphite levels are low and the wines are fermented exclusively by natural yeasts, with rarely more than 30% new oak used on a wine.