Jean-Claude Boisset, Organic Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits

Jean-Claude Boisset, Organic Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits

Vintage: 2021

VintageProduct CodeFormatClosureAvailability
2021BO202B216 x 75Natural CorkAvailable
Producer

Jean-Claude Boisset is a family-owned wine company founded in 1961, with their first parcel located in Gevrey-Chambertin. Today the company is based in Les Ursulines, a former convent in Nuits-Saint-Georges and is run by brother and sister duo Jean-Charles and Nathalie Boisset. In 2018, they opened a new state-of-the-art winery, reflecting their modern, technical approach to winemaking.

Since 2002, the wines have been made by Grégory Patriat. Previously head viticulturist and assistant winemaker at the legendary Domaine Leroy, Grégory has brought a detailed, vineyard-led approach to Jean-Claude Boisset. This approach is mirrored in Grégory’s winemaking, resulting in wines that reflect their origins with a harmony of freshness and fruit expression. After tasting the 2021 vintage, Jancis Robinson wrote that she “was utterly knocked out by the balance and refinement of Grégory Patriat’s wines at J-C Boisset”.

Today, Grégory makes 45 wines from across the Côte d’Or, working closely with his team of growers throughout the year. He gets just as excited about his plot of Grand Cru ‘Clos de la Roche’ (from which he has been buying fruit since 2002) or his vines in Chambolle-Musigny (which includes a parcel of the Premier Cru ‘Clos de l’Orme’), as he does with his Aligoté, his Fixin Blanc or other lesser-known appellations.

His philosophy is simple: work with old, massal selection vines that produce highly concentrated, low-yielding fruit. In the cellar, he is non-interventionist, preferring to let the fruit express itself. “70-80% of the quality comes from the vineyard,” he says. Vinification for the reds is in large, open-topped oak foudres, while the whites are fermented in Chassin barrels. Since 2007, Grégory has introduced larger 450-litre barrels to reduce the influence of oak.

Grégory’s wines have won no fewer than 74 medals and 13 trophies from prestigious competitions over the past eight years, including the International Wine Challenge ‘Clos de la Roche’ Trophy, which he has won five times.

Vineyards

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 1.05 hectares of Ecocert certified Chardonnay vines, trained using the Guyot system. They are 37 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.

Vintage

The 2021 vintage was a difficult year in Burgundy. After a mild winter and a cold spell in spring, temperatures rose significantly to summer levels during late March-early April. This caused the vines to bud earlier than usual, which left fragile buds vulnerable. During early April, there was a sudden drop in temperature, with extremes of -8ºC. Despite the spring frosts, temperatures were warm during the summer, and flowering took place in July and the plentiful rainfall provided substantial hydric reserve. This allowed the grapes to ripen slowly at their own pace and recover from earlier vine stress due to harsh conditions. Despite being one of the smallest vintages ever in Burgundy, it offers a very nice and subtle representation of each site and its expression, with fruity, freshness and great finesse wines.

Vinification

The hand-harvested grapes were whole-bunch pressed for 2.5 hours. The must was cooled to 12˚C and transferred directly into 600L demi-muid oak barrels without settling, to keep the wine in contact with the lees. A long and slow fermentation took place using indigenous yeasts, followed by ageing in toasted French oak. The wine was then very lightly filtered and fined before bottling in October 2022.

Tasting Notes & Technical Details

In the glass, the Organic Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits is straw yellow with white highlights. It has very intense bouquet perfumes with notes of citrus zest, green apple and toasty aromas of fresh brioche. The palate has excellent tension with concentrated fruit flavours that linger on the finish.

Alcohol (ABV)

12.5%