While based in Gevrey-Chambertin and known for its extremely well-priced range of wines from many of that village’s top vineyard sites, Domaine Frédéric Esmonin has other tricks up its sleeve. Today’s wine, from a little further south in Nuits-Saint-Georges, is one of the best examples of Burgundy’s “game of inches” I’ve come across lately.
The “Hauts Pruliers” vineyard, is, as its name suggests, a high-elevation site reaching to the edge of the strip of forest that crowns Burgundy’s long, limestone-rich escarpment. It sits just upslope from one of Nuits-Saint-Georges’ most celebrated Premier Crus, “Les Pruliers.” So, you know where I’m going with this, right? Just a few meters’ walk up a hillside can make for a significant price reduction—even though I’d argue that Esmonin’s 2016 “Les Hauts Pruliers” is of Premier Cru quality. It is, among other things, a fuller and fleshier wine than you might expect from such a steep-pitched, upper-slope cru, although Esmonin is known for crafting red Burgundies that drink tantalizingly well in their youth. He’s also known for exceptional value at every rung of the Burgundy ladder, and this one may well be the best of them all. One sip and you’ll understand what a steal it is!
Bright, floral, and lifted should not come as a surprise if you take a closer look at “Les Hauts Pruliers.” As noted above, this vineyard is perched at a high point on the slope at the edge of the forest, with a steeper pitch and shallower, scree- and gravel-strewn topsoil compared to “Les Pruliers” below. Generally speaking, such upper-slope sites are associated with lighter, leaner styles. Yet Esmonin (who also makes a consistently stellar ‘Hautes-Côtes-de-Nuits’ bottling) avoided undue austerity while maintaining plenty of nerve for aging. In the glass, it’s a bright ruby-red moving to garnet and pink at the rim, with an inviting nose of red and black cherry, blackberry, wet rose petals, black tea, mushroom broth, forest floor, and a well-integrated hint of toasty oak. It is medium-bodied and quite sleek and pretty, as so many of Esmonin’s wine’s are, but with a hint of mid-palate ‘grip’ that is typical of northern Nuits reds. It has many years of graceful aging ahead of it, too, with its likely peak coming at the 5- to 7-year mark. At this price, however, it’ll be tempting to drink a few now, or soon—if so, decant it about 45 minutes before service in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees. Attached is an epic breakdown on mastering coq au vin without the coq—a killer dish for this delicious wine. Cheers!