A Burgundy Odyssey for Bloomsday Commomoration (June 16): Grégory and Antoine Gouges Weave a Winedark Tapestry of Seven Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Crus in Nine Packs of NSG Vertical Sets for the Paterfamilias- A Portrait in Youth and Age

Let the nihilists and conspiracy nuts have their doomsday; Bloomsday will remain our most personally significant wine-related holiday. Named in honor of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist and hero of James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece ‘Ulysses’ that follows Bloom’s existential meander through the street, brothels and drinking-holes of turn-of-the-century Dublin on (of course) June 16.

Ensconced within the smoky warmth of Davy Byrne’s pub, Bloom exclaims, “Nice wine it is. Taste it better because I’m not thirsty …. Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. I wanted that badly …. Glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed. Crushing in the winepress grapes of Burgundy. Sun’s heat it is.”

2025 marks the hundred-and-third anniversary of the release of James Joyce’s masterpiece, and a few venerable souls who purchased a copy on the day it came out are still trying to wade through it. Not everyone agrees on the genius of the work—a florid, stream-of-consciousness ramble through Ireland’s capital city over the course of a single day. Joyce fans celebrate this day to honor the peculiar genius of their favorite author. We prefer to reserve it for a celebration of our favorite Burgundies.

Catching Greatness in the Act: Domaine Henri Gouges Vertical Sets

This year we are focusing on the grand old estate of Henri Gouges and offer a number of vertical sets from some of Nuits-St-Georges’ top vineyards. The beauty and purpose of a vertical—same producer, same varietal, same appellation, different vintage—is to measure the effects of weather on terroir, and to gauge changes not only between production years, but on the evolution of wine in a bottle.

As wine lovers, we are also readers, and vertical sets are often the most intriguing way to understand the story of a winemaker and his/her wares; we can follow the plot gifted us by their skills and by nature’s editing.

An important note to remember when tasting Burgundy vintages is that maturation process rarely follows a typical path of youth/maturity/decline. Much more frequently it follows a sin curve with peaks and valleys. A disappointing Burgundy at the age of five has likely not passed its prime, especially if it is made by a producer with the reputation of Gouges. It should be pushed further back in the cellar—it has a good chance of opening up with a few more quiet years of rest.

These wines are, of course, available individually as well, at the prices noted.

Vintage 2022

Dry heat seems to be the new normal in Burgundy and the vines are adapting. As a result, the wines that emerge from the far end of a scorching season are able to retain delicate tannins along with freshness, fruitiness, finesse and elegance. Of course, it helped that there was a big storm at the end of June where nearly eight inches of rain fell; also, the extreme heat throughout the rest of the summer slowed the physiological ripeness in the vines as the sugar accumulation continued and the acidity was preserved. But in the end, the resilience of the vines is, and always has been, a hallmark of Burgundy.

Vintage 2019

Generally considered an excellent vintage, the 2019 growing season was preceded by a very mild winter than morphed into a chilly spring, with April seeing biting frosts that cut into yields. Flowering was uneven due to a cooler than average June and some bunches suffered from millerandage, which further nibbled away yield. Temperatures then warmed up rapidly, to such an extent that, by July and August, many of the vines were suffering from heat and drought stress.

The grapes that survived were small and richly concentrated, leading to a small, but notably expressive vintage with richly, refined fruit and the best examples likely to cellar well.

Vintage 2014

Burgundian weather during the 2014 growing season had its usual ups and downs with a mild, dry spring leading to an early budburst and flowering. Warm conditions continued through June, and all looked well until a violent hailstorm struck, battering sites in Beaune, Meursault, Volnay and Pommard particularly affected. The vineyards of Côte de Nuits tended to be less affected, but some still suffered losses. Yields were down across the board and July failed to bring better weather as conditions remained cool and wet with few days of real heat. Late July also saw another hailstorm strike. By mid-August, better weather began to prevail, and sunny days started to dry out the vineyards. This pleasant turn of fortune lasted through harvest, and the resulting vintage was smaller than usual, but the quality was high, with both reds and whites tending to be classic in character.

Domaine Henri Gouges
A Century of Stewardship and Strength
in Nuits-Saint-Georges

Considered by many to be Nuits-Saint-Georges’ top domain, the estate has been passed down through many generations and is, to this day, a family affair, with four Gouges at the helm.

Grégory Gouges has been the domain’s winemaker since 2003; Pierre today runs the business end with his cousin Christian, son Grégory, and Grégory’s cousin Antoine. The vineyards cover 36 acres, including seven of the best well-positioned Premier Crus: Les Chaignots, Chênes Carteaux, Les Pruliers, the monopole vineyard of Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges and nearly three acres each of each of the appellation’s most famous vineyards, Les Vaucrains and Les Saint Georges.

Antoine, Grégory, Christian & Pierre Gouges, Domaine Henri Gouges
photo: jean louis bernuy

Domain Henri Gouges is of the appellation, for the appellation and by the appellation; all properties are within Nuits-Saint-Georges. According to Grégory, “Our family had some vines, but mainly for their own consumption. Henri decided to dedicate himself to winemaking full time with the intention creating his own domain. He bought this building, the old police station. and lived here with his wife and children. He built the cellar, the winery and the stable for the horses. The majority of the vines he purchased are on the south side of Nuits-Saint-Georges; the vines in Les Chaignots were an inheritance in the 1970’s from a cousin. He focused on the southern part of the appellation, which he considered as the ‘real’ Nuits-Saint-Georges with wines of substance and power. He created a solid foundation and created the image of the domain. We have tried to keep it. There has been some evolution, but without becoming victims of fashion—just a slow evolution without losing our identity.”

Waxing philosophically, Grégory muses, “You can’t live in the past, but you can learn from history, especially if it is a history that have worked well. For us it is very important to stay on this road. It’s a road of quality wines, terroir wines, respect for nature and respect for the customer. It is something very honest, and we will continue like this.”

Tapestry of Terroir: The Winescape of Nuits-Saint-Georges

Like most things involving wine, ‘terroir’ can be as simple or complicated as you care to make it. At its most basic, terroir is a wine’s pedigree, its ‘sense of origin’, but then again, these basics involve such highbrow abstractions as geomorphology, bacterial genomes and mesa- and microclimates.

Nuits-St-Georges, with its centuries-old history of winemaking, is a grand example.

With the village of Nuits-St-Georges itself as the fulcrum, the robust appellation extends to the north as far as the border of Vosne-Romanée, while the southern section lies partly in Nuits-Saint-Georges and partly in Prémeaux. The wines from each section are unique in style and according to experts, with differences defined (in the main) by the lay of the land. The soils in the northern sector are built around the pebbly alluvium that washes down from up-slope, or in the low-lying parts, around silty deposits from the river Meuzin. In the southern sector the alluvia at the base of the slopes originate in the combe of Vallerots where there are deep marly-limestone soils, while at the top of the slope, the soil has nearly all eroded away and the rock is near the surface. In both regions, favored exposures are mostly to the east or southeast.

Producing predominantly red wine, Nuits-Saint-Georges bottles display the muscularity and breeding most sought after in Burgundy—the ability to improve with bottle age. When young, the wine display aromas of cherry, strawberry and blackcurrant, and when matured, leather, truffle, fur and game.

Vineyard Holdings

Bourgogne Régionale

So specific are the cru vineyards of Burgundy that régionale vineyards may exist in the literal shadow of more renowned domains, occasionally separated by hundreds, or even as little as dozens of feet. Régionale wines tend to be culled from vineyards located along the foot of more prestigious wine-growing slopes on limestone soil mixed with some clays and marls, where the earth is stony and quick-draining.

Unlike Bordeaux, where classifications are based on individual châteaux (capable of buying other vineyards and expanding), Burgundian label classifications are more geographically focused. A single vineyard, therefore, may have multiple owners, each with a small piece of the action.

The ‘Bourgogne’ label first appeared in 1937, and in 2017, a further classification permitted wines from vineyards located within the Côte d’Or to be labeled as ‘Bourgogne Côte d’Or’; it’s a great tool for a consumer looking to explore the wide diversity of vineyard among the Hills of Gold while maintaining a terroir-focused, climat approach to Burgundy.

Bourgogne Two-Bottle Set $106

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Rouge ($53)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Rouge ($53)

2022 Bourgogne-level wines are generally unfussy and non-pretentious, but in the hands of the Gouges estate, they display most of the depth of Village wines and beyond. The fruit profile here is remarkable rich with smooth, integrated tannins and a touch of grassiness in the acidity.

2019 From the bottom of hillside in the lieu-dit ‘Des Petits Chaliots’, the wine displays pronounced intensity, with a nose showcasing strawberry, red rose, cured meat, gravel, underbrush and white pepper, finishing with crushed-rock minerality. Having begun its developmental journey, it may not have the longevity of Cru wines, and will probably reach its peak sooner.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Village

Village—the quality level below Premier Cru—is the most affordable path to understanding the underlying ‘sense of place’ that is the Holy Grail of Burgundian wine ideology. Many of the qualities that are assigned to various Crus are recognizable this level, if in a slightly dilute form—Savigny’s meatiness, Volnay’s elegance, Vosne-Romanée’s spice and Meursault’s buttery nuttiness. Legal restrictions help to underscore this: Villages wines have a slightly higher yield allowances per hectare, but the grape varieties are restricted. Not only that, but even Grand Cru vineyard owners can declassify grapes when they see fit, and many of these end up in Village-level wines.

Village Three-Bottle Set $298

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($102)
2019 Maison Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($94)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($102)

2022 Blackberry and wild strawberry are laced with firm natural tannins that 20% new oak neatly sews up. Still possessing the austerity of youth, the rich mid-palate darkens and softens in the glass and leads to a gently sauvage—or rustic—finale.

2019 Domaine Henri Gouges makes this outstanding Nuits-Saint-Georges by blending estate fruit with neighboring organic vineyards and bottles it under ‘Maison’ Henri Gouges. A nose of wild blackberry drives the wine, which shows a touch of herb and musk that should become more pronounced with a bit more age.

2014 All the rough edges have been shaved off a solid effort that is approaching its tenth birthday, about the limit for improvement in a Village wine. The perfume of wood and fruit has morphed into a tertiary blend of earth and leather; the color is bricking-out and growing tawny. Look for traces of 2022’s brilliant cherry, but grown concentrated and slightly dried; at this stage, a Village wine is generally approaching its fullest glory.

Zone Vosnoise (The Northern End)

Zone Vosnoise is a local term that refers to the northern portion of Nuits-Saint-Georges just below the Les Damodes vineyard; it derives its name from the fact that it borders Vosne-Romanée’s Aux Malconsorts Premier Cru vineyard. The soil in this region is characterized by thin soil, cobbled silts, clay and scree; a combination that favors rich, full Pinot Noirs.

The Zone is prized for its Premier Crus, including the fabled climats of Aux Boudots and Aux Chaignots.

Premier Cru Les Chaignots

Unlike Bordeaux, where Premier Cru is the top of the heap, Premier Cru plays second fiddle in Burgundy, with Grand Cru as the ultimate expression of quality.  That is hardly to discount the quality inherent in Premier Cru wines, which represents about 18 percent of Burgundy’s annual output. In total, Burgundy hosts 640 Premier Cru vineyards (also referred to as climats) in the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise.

Les Chaignots is a fifteen acre climat located mid-slope in the northern part of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The chalky soils are ideal for Pinot Noir; made up of gravel and small rocks with a low proportion of clay. There is good drainage here, ensuring that vines are not waterlogged. Rather, they grow deep root systems to access water and nutrients further in the ground. The vineyard’s easterly exposure works with the mid-slope position to ensure plenty of sunshine throughout the growing season. The elevation offers diurnal temperature variation to slow ripening and helping the grapes retain their acidity.

Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $288

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots ($144)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots ($144)

2022 Recovering from the frost damage of 2021, and untouched by June’s hail, Gouges 2022 shows balanced ripeness fine-grained tannins and a classic dark fruit profile. The vines that produced these grapes are more than thirty years old, and this is seen by the depth and concentration of the juice. The nose remains restrained and will undoubtedly open up profoundly in years to come.

2019 Ebullient with fragrance, especially fragrant bouquet of brambly red berry fruit with a dusting of dark chocolate, the wine is broadening and discovering a voice that will continue to grow louder with the passing of time.

Zone de Saint-Georges (Central)

With the town of Nuits-St-Georges itself as the fulcrum, the Zone Vosnoise lies above and Zone de Saint-Georges below. The southern vineyards, including their top climats, tend to produce rustic, rugged wines that are hard in their youth and earthy in their twilight years, wines that have been described in existential terms: “This is what I always imagined a mature Burgundy to be.”

Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux

First among equals of the smallest of Zone de Saint-Georges Premier Crus, Chênes Carteaux is a little more than six acres whose highest vines sit at just below one thousand feet in elevation. 20% slopes are relatively brutal for the region. As such, these wines tend to be lighter and brighter than most Nuits-St-Georges, displaying a classic minerality in its goût de terroir—literally, ‘the taste of the soil.’

Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $252

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux ($126)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux ($126)

2022 A detailed and mineral-driven wine with a strong herbal presence, the sense of energy is palpable. Medium-bodied and slightly austere, the filagree tannins work alongside sharp, higher-altitude acidity that fan out in a long finish.

2014 Nearly a decade after harvest, this wine—having been well-made in a year with some difficulties elsewhere but wonderful at Chez Gouges—retains its ‘Pinoté’ of  crisp cherry and stoney persistence. The bouquet is filled with sous bois and truffle and the wine expresses and impressively long finish.

Premier Cru Les Pruliers

Les Pruliers lies near the border of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Premeaux-Prissey in the southern part of the appellation. The name is a reference to the wild plum trees that grew on the plot before it was planted to vines. Pruliers faces due east, catching the morning sun and is on a moderate slope silty scree and gravel over limestone; the southern end has noticeably finer gravel than the north. The wines of Pruliers are fruit-heavy, with flavors pitched toward the black. While not heavy-handed in the slightest, these wines emphasize robustness over sleekness.

Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $315

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers ($198)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers ($117)

2022 Cropped at 22 hl/ha (about half what is average for the AOP), drawn from vines where 80% are over 75 years old then matured in 25% new oak, the wine shows dense red fruit, taut and relatively fine middleweight flavors exuding a classic bead of minerality.

2014 From a birthplace of privilege—Gouges plot in Le Pruliers—the wine was created with wonderful perfume, fine length and body, and the structure for long aging. Thanks to minimalist concrete tank fermentations and moderate use of new oak, this wine was among the stars of the vintage and continues to evolve along a wonderful path.

Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges

Clos des Porrets is a monopole vineyard, meaning that it entirely owned by one family—in this case, the Gouges. Not only that but it is the anecdotal home of Pinot Gouges, a white-skinned mutation of Pinot Noir that Henri Gouges discovered. Although not walled in the traditional sense of a Clos, the climat covers about nine acres of the larger Les Porrets site. The Clos sits mid-slope where its southeast exposure affords it full sunlight in the growing season. The wines are, as a result, deep, dark, earthy and enormous in stature, but refined nonetheless.

Premier Cru Three-Bottle Set $396

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($135)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($135)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($126)

2022 Dark and brooding with tremendous potential. On opening, and allowing for breathing time, the wine displays rose petal, aloe and brambly black raspberry on the nose with a lot of nuance on the palate that is chomping at the bit to be released.

2019 Black cherry, earthy tree bark and dried herbs on the nose with black licorice appearing on the mid-palate. A wine that should easily stand the test of time.

2014 Still several years from peak, the wine still oozes with fruit acids—cherries, cranberries and currant especially and wrapped in a backbone of graphite and stone.

Premier Cru Les Vaucrains

Les Vaucrains is considered one of the top Premier Cru sites in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Perched near the top of the hill on the hill above the Les Saint-Georges Premier Cru site, which is perhaps (in an appellation without Grand Crus) the best. The 15 acre Vaucrains vineyard is on the upper slope of the Côte d’Or, just below the line where vineyard becomes forest. The soils here are the calcareous and rocky as the process of erosion has sent much of the  nutrient-rich silts down the hill. The lack of water in this free-draining soil makes for concentrated berries and a small amount of clay in the soil contributes weight to the finished wine. In fact, the evineyard is named Vaucrains after a French term for ‘infertile.’

Wines from this climat offer the best of Nuits-St-Georges power and nuance, with dark cherry, velvet tannins, and elusive notes of milk chocolate.

Premier Cru Three-Bottle Set $684

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($252)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($234)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($198)

2022 Stone dust shows on the nose along with the purity and precision of dark fruit with just a hint of smokiness. With 50-year-old vines on average, harvested at 25 hl/ha and 30% new oak, the wine has the structure for the long haul.

2019 With the influence of oak remaining characteristically discreet, the nose is filled with fresh aromas of cassis and plum liqueur with rustic earthy wisps. Tannins are suave but broad-shouldered flavors that persist through an impressive finish.

2014 This is a voluminous wine built for aging; the subtle application of wood allows the firm natural tannins to integrate with the cassis and blackberry notes as tertiary flavors of forest floor, bracken and wild truffles emerge.

Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges

Nuits-St-Georges contains no Grand Cru climats, and in their absence, of the 41 Premier Crus, Les Saint-Georges may be considered worthy of the upgrade. In fact, there is a movement afoot urging the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine to authorize the promotion.

Located halfway between Premeaux-Prissey and the village of Nuits-Saint-Georges, it is a mosaic of limestone soils containing enough clay to strike an ideal balance between drainage and water retention; the wines are a powerful testimony to the terroir, offering concentrated red fruit, soft tannins and notable depth in the finish.

Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $969

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges ($720)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges ($249)

2022 Black and red cherry with some plum and hints of roasted meat; textures are layered and the spice notes are already evident, showing hints of how exceptional it intends to become .

2014 The emerging spice box includes clove, cinnamon and thyme alongside dark chocolate, and oak vanilla.  A wine so structured and massive that it may only be a third of the way through its lifetime—drink or hold; it should improve for another decade.

White Nuits-Saint-Georges

A category so small that it amounts to a rounding error; only 3% of Nuits-St-Georges’ output is white. But, oh, that white! Oozing with opulence, white NSG shows Champagne-like brioche above its rich and memorable golden hue. Only about twenty-five acres in Nuits-St-Georges is set aside for white wine varietals, mainly (but not exclusively) Chardonnay.

White NSG Two-Bottle Set $251

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru La Perrière Blanc ($198)
100% Pinot Gouges from the La Perrière climat, filled—as the name suggests—with stones and chalk. Low production from, as its name implies, an old stone quarry. This unique cru is as rare as it is unusual, coming from a single acre of 80-year-old vines showing a broad, mineral-laden palate with floral and white peach notes.

2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Pinot Blanc ($53)
Don’t let the label fool you; this is not Pinot Blanc, but Pinot Gouges, a Pinot Noir mutation that Henri Gouges discovered in a stone quarry called La Perrière, now a vineyard. The incorrect, but user-friendly moniker ‘Pinot Blanc’ leads you to one of the most idiosyncratic whites in Burgundy. On the nose, it shows classic lemon and apple followed by cold stone and faint hints of buttery toast. On the tongue, sweet almond and fresh corn appear.

- - -
Posted on 2025.06.14 in Nuits-Saint-Georges, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages