Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru ‘Les Pruliers’ 2020

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Henri Gouges

Henri Gouges has a long continuous history in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Nuit-Saint-Georges rests on the Southern border of Vosne-Romanée.

The creation of Domaine Henri Gouges was the culmination of four hundred years of family grape farmers. Henri formed the Domaine in 1920, but was soon discouraged with the idea of selling the fruit to négociants. He envisioned a better quality wine from his new Domaine, and by 1933 was producing, bottling and selling directly. It has remained an undivided family property as the transition continued from Henri to his sons Marcel and Michel, to the next generation of Pierre and Christian who have recently turned it over to Gregory and Antoine Gouges.

Located in the heart of the “Cote d’Or” in the village of Nuits Saint Georges, they have grown to thirty-six acres of vineyards and a modern gravity flow winemaking facility where they produce Bourgogne, Village and Premier Cru wines.

Henri’s philosophy from the old maxim, “It is on the vines that great wines are made” has endured through each subsequent generation. Respecting the land, the environment, and the traditions of the region have been at the heart of their winemaking. Great care to nurture the soil and vines has lead to the highest quality fruit while controlling yields for optimum results.

The Style

The wines of Nuits tend not be as masculine as the wine of Gevrey-Chambertin or have the immediate opulence of Vosne.

In the 1990’s Gouges used to make quite chewy reds with whole-bunch and cold soak influence. Over time they have been looking to evolve their style, making finer wines. The videos in the offer show the rebuilt winery, the exceptionally gentle fruit handling, and, berry by berry sorting, with gravity used to move fruit.

The 2020 Vintage at Henri Gouges

Grégory Gouges described the 2020 growing season as yet another one that was “hot and even drier than 2018 and 2019, which largely meant that we didn’t have much disease pressure save for a single attack of oidium that we were able to successfully beat back. By contrast, the hydric stress and evaporation suffered by the fruit were serious problems. We also had vines in Pruliers that were hit by hail though we didn’t suffer much damage and I would put the losses at no more than 5%. After much debate and hand wringing, we chose to begin picking on the 24th of August and brought in extremely clean fruit but not much of it as our average yield came in at only 17 hl/ha with a low of 13 hl/ha to a high of 23 hl/ha. We noticed that there was a definite difference between the fruit we picked at the beginning compared to the end as the heat took its toll and some of the fruit began to wilt from the dehydration. And you could see this because even though we had the normal number of berries, there was just no juice in them. Potential alcohols were very strong at between 14 and 15%, which isn’t what we’re after, but it is what it is because you can’t have unripe tannins. Even so, we vinified very softly for fear of over extracting as the skins were exceptionally thick and the solid to liquid ratio was very high. Importantly, we didn’t acidify as we felt that the tannins would compensate for the lowish acidities. Overall, I like the 2020s better than I thought I would. At the beginning they seemed overly ripe and heavy but after the very late malos finally finished, they have definitely freshened, added energy and have become much more typical. 

Allen Meadows, Burghound

Where are Henri Gouges Vineyards?

The Geology & Geography of Nuits-Saint-Georges