This is the top cuvée from Prieuré Roch's Clos des Corvées, the 5.21-hectare premier cru monopole in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Since 2002 it has been made only from millerandé bunches, whose small, uneven berries give very concentrated juice.
About This Wine
The domaine makes several wines from the Clos des Corvées. The pickers first take the small-berried millerandé bunches for this wine; the rest of the old-vine fruit becomes the Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vieilles Vignes, and younger vines go into further bottlings. The domaine calls the result powerful and full-bodied, dense and structured, the nobility of Nuits. The 2020 harvest was early and dry, and in the Côte de Nuits the grapes had thick skins and little juice, so colour and tannin came easily and acidity stayed high.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Blackberry, black cherry and dark plum, with violet, graphite and a peppery stem note.
- Palate: Dense and full, with deep fruit, firm, fine tannin and a cool, fresh backbone.
- Finish: Very long, on dark fruit, stone and spice.
Serving & Food
Give it time: open from about 2029, decant for an hour or two and serve at 16 to 17°C in a large Burgundy bowl. It should keep well past 2040. Match it with rib of beef, jugged hare, or braised pork knuckle in red fermented bean curd.
How to Enjoy
Long-term cellaring, and anyone wanting to taste how far Nuits-Saint-Georges can go when yields are cut to a minimum.
Product Details
Producer: Domaine Prieuré Roch
Country: France
Region: Côte de Nuits, Burgundy
Appellation: Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Corvées Monopole Vieilles Vignes
Vineyard: Clos des Corvées monopole, 5.21 ha
Selection: Millerandé bunches only (since 2002)
Vintage: 2020
Grape Variety: Pinot Noir
Volume: 750mL
About the Domaine
Monopoles, vineyards worked by a single grower, are unusual in Burgundy, and Prieuré Roch has three of them. Besides the Clos des Corvées there is the 6-hectare Clos des Varoilles in Gevrey-Chambertin and the 0.55-hectare Clos Goillotte in Vosne-Romanée, set in front of the Prince de Conti's former wine cellars.
Holding a whole clos lets the domaine split it by age and quality of fruit rather than by ownership lines, as it does here. The estate was set up in 1988 by Henry-Frédéric Roch and now covers about twenty hectares, all farmed organically.