Henri Gouges Nuits Saint Georges Les Pruliers 2015

Reviews

93-95NM

“The 2015 Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers has a more feminine, more fruit-driven bouquet than the NSG Clos des Porrets, very pure crushed strawberry, red cherry and cranberry aromas that gain intensity all the time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with blood orange on the entry, plenty of lively red berry fruit with admirable mineralité and tension on the finish. This is a superb les Pruliers from Domaine Gouges and it should give a couple decades worth of drinking pleasure. Grégory Gouges expressed discrete contentment towards his 2015s. Never one to let hyperbole get the better of him, he lets the wines do the talking and they formed some of the most impressive barrel samples that I have tasted over many years tasting here. ‘They are a little less classical than the 2014,’ he explained. ‘We had a very early vintage with an early budding. April, May and June were a little hotter than usual and dry, so the flowering period was early and fast. There were very good conditions for the vines with no mildew, just a little pressure from oïdium, but no damage. The sulphur powder was effective in combating that. The only problem in 2015 was the dryness, because we keep grass in the middle of the vineyard [as cover crop between the rows]. Usually that is advantageous but in 2015, the first rains went to the grass and not the grapes. We lost maybe 10-15% of the capacity of the harvest by the concentration of sugars, tannins and acidity, which is fine for the quality. For a few years we have tried to keep freshness in the wine and we took the decision to start on 3 September to maintain the good level of acidity that we never try to modify. The malic was very very low and if you tried to compensate with tartaric acidity, it doesn't work. The start of September was lovely and I still think it was a good thing to start earlier. After the vinification the malolactic started very quickly as the level of acidity was low and the outside temperature was not really cold. In December [2015], half the malolactics had finished and everything had been completed by February. This is why we started racking the 2015 this week [end October] to bottle about two and a half months early, around the start of December. The yields are between 18 and 24hl/ha - very low.’ I just feel that the opulence of the growing season combined with the intrinsic classicism of Gouges' style met at a happy equilibrium. There is density to these wines, yet not power—freshness from start to finish. It was only the entry-level Bourgogne Rouge that I found wanting: opt for the delicious and just ‘fun’ Pinot Blanc counterpart instead, but thereon in, it was pleasure all the way crowned by an imperious, outstanding NSG Les Saint Georges... Anyone thought about upgrading that vineyard to Grand Cru status?”