Nuits St Georges Aux Lavières 2019, Domaine Grivot

Along with Domaine Tollot Beaut this 15 ha domaine was one of the first to bottle its own wines, back in the 1930’s. It is now in the hands of the 5th generation, Etienne Grivot, who produces some of the most classic wines in the whole of Burgundy, with an average vine age of around 45 - 50 years old. His motto is simple! “Wine is a therapy – you need to feel better after it than before!” Etienne Grivot succeeded his father, Jean, in 1987 and today presides over 15 hectares of vines spread accross Nuits, Vosne, Vougeot and Echézeaux. Etienne has some great raw materials to work with. He destems 95% and stops the practice of ‘pigeage’ as soon as the fermentation starts, continuing with one ‘pumping over’ the skins per day before the ferment stops and the wines are transferred to barrel. He uses 30% new oak for village wines, 40-50% new oak for 1er Crus and up to 70% new oak for his Grand Cru’s. This is one of the modern-day, benchmark Burgundian domaines. The estate’s densely-planted old vines (the average age is 40 years old) produce naturally-low yields and, together with Etienne’s organic approach to viticulture and sensible winemaking, result in vivid, pure, very well-balanced Burgundies. The wines are much more softly extracted than when Etienne first started, the winemaking is incredibly flexible, depending on the vintage, but usually only 5% of stalks are retained, and rarely more than a third of the barrels are new. A reference point for good Burgundy.