Scorpio Rising

The Premier Cru "Les Cailles" is situated in the South part of the village of Vosne, close to Prémeaux Prissey, surrounded by the "Saint Georges" and the "Porrets" vineyards, with the "Vaucrains" premier cru above.

The vineyard usually produces a wine more accessible, in its early years, that its more esteemed neighbors. That’s not to say its ‘forward’, though these is a generosity of fruit to young Cailles that is not evident in the other Chev bottlings from St George and Vaucrains; it’s often quite plummy and layered with black cherry tones. There is also plenty of game, mushroom/soil notes that are more minerally than either and early on it typically has high tones of violets and blood orange. However, young Cailles is by no means a wine of meager structure; it is a big-boned and sturdy Nuits that just happens to be rather generous with its fruit out of the blocks. This quality tends to ameliorate some of the asperity or ‘adolescent tannins’ that can be found in young Nuits premier crus from this section of the commune. The southern Nuits, Les Cailles included, may have a touch of the maverick, but the robust charms of leather and denim are often no less alluring than the soft elegance of silk and satin.

The vineyards themselves, Les Porrets St.-Georges, Les Cailles and Les St. Georges, are planted on deep brown limestone, on a band of rock and pebbles which continue the marble quarries of Comblanchien to the south. There is often a granular feel about these fine young southern Nuits though, from the top domains, this is balanced by a concomitant measure of complexity and finesse

The 2006, flowing down my trachea, came to my glass via a birthday drink from the Guvnor. It offers an intriguing glimpse of earth-go-glass purity of flavour while its ‘taste-beyond-taste’ has something of the night about it; magnetic, elusive, sexy and determined. Scorpio rising over the gentle hill’s of Nuits St George.