The premier cru Nuits-Saint-Georges holdings here range over this long, straggling appellation from the northern Vosne border (plump La Richemone, mouthfilling, intensely perfumed Les Chaignots) to the rocky, thin-soiled southern tip (mineral, sinewy Les Vaucrains). The commune’s reputation for making hard wines requiring years to come round should, however, be weighed against the evidence at this and other leading domaines, where the norm is hugely fruity wines, frequently featuring plum and griotte cherry, deep, resonant notes of tar and underbrush, with tannicity variable according to site. Father Alain and daughter Elodie’s great skill is to harmonise these elements of force and finesse into compellingly fragrant, glycerol-charged wines, Les Champs Perdrix being a stand-out example. The domaine is now also getting the return on its substantial replanting programme in the early 1980s in Les Porets, Les Vaucrains and Les Chaignots as these cuvées have now recovered the depth and richness which so distinguished them previously.
