Cote de Nuits vs Cote de Beaune
Two halves of the Côte d'Or: the Côte de Nuits in the north, which the BIVB calls a paradise for Pinot Noir and the center for the Bourgogne region's Grands Crus, and the Côte de Beaune in the south, where Pinot Noir leads around Beaune and Chardonnay dominates from Meursault onwards.
Decanter says the best Burgundy wines come from the Côte d'Or, which is divided into the Côte de Nuits in the north and the Côte de Beaune in the south. JancisRobinson.com describes each as one half of the Côte d'Or escarpment: the Côte de Nuits is named after its principal town of Nuits-St-Georges, the Côte de Beaune after the town and wine centre of Beaune. The Bourgogne wine board (BIVB) says the Côte de Nuits and Hautes Côtes mainly produce red wines, with white wines from Chardonnay "fewer and farther between", while around Beaune the vineyards are mainly planted with Pinot Noir and from Meursault onwards Chardonnay dominates. JancisRobinson.com frames the contrast by reputation: the Côte de Nuits produces the greatest red wines of Burgundy, and the greatest white wines of Burgundy are grown on the Côte de Beaune. The BIVB's Côte de Beaune-Villages sheet adds a physical difference: the Côte de Beaune is a little younger than the Côte de Nuits, with gentler slopes and more varied hillsides.
The BIVB places the Côte de Nuits vines between Dijon and Corgoloin, on a narrow strip of hillside around 20km long and, in parts, just 200 meters wide. JancisRobinson.com lists its principal villages from north to south as Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Flagey-Échézeaux and Nuits-St-Georges. Behind the Côte, the BIVB says the Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits vines grow on two plateaus between 300 and 400m above sea level, across around 20 communes, and that the area has enjoyed a renaissance since the 1950s.
The BIVB says the Côte de Beaune covers 20km from north to south, between Ladoix-Serrigny and the hillsides of the Maranges, with vineyards that face the morning sun and are never more than a few hundred meters wide; it calls the town of Beaune an historical center. JancisRobinson.com lists the principal village appellations from north to south as Corton and Corton-Charlemagne, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet. To the west, the BIVB describes the Hautes Côtes de Beaune as a gently concave plateau 400m above sea level, where around 20 communes produce the Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune appellation.
Pinot Noir leads. The BIVB says the Côte de Nuits and Hautes Côtes mainly produce red wines and calls the area a paradise for Pinot Noir; white wines made from Chardonnay are fewer and farther between, and some are also made from Aligoté. JancisRobinson.com describes the Côte de Nuits' white wines as very occasional. Marsannay, per the BIVB, is the only appellation Village producing wines of all three colours, and its rosés are made by direct pressing.
Both grapes share the slope. The BIVB says the vineyards around Beaune are mainly planted with Pinot Noir (Volnay, Pommard, Ladoix), that the Chardonnay grape produces "a few marvels on the Corton hill", and that from Meursault onwards Chardonnay dominates. Its Meursault sheet says that there, as one moves southward, red wines give way to whites. The BIVB credits Chardonnay with the reputation of the great white wines of the Côte de Beaune, as well as those of the Côte Chalonnaise, the Mâconnais and Chablis.
JancisRobinson.com writes that Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot and Nuits-St-Georges tend to produce robust, long-lived wines, while Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée epitomise finesse and elegance. The BIVB says Morey-Saint-Denis forms a bridge between the wines of Gevrey-Chambertin and those of Chambolle-Musigny, and describes red Nuits-Saint-Georges as muscular and vigorous, chewy and full-bodied.
The BIVB describes Volnay as admired for its delicacy, its sap and its bouquet, and says the 19th-century fame of Pommard earned it the image of a forceful wine, while time, terroir and methods of vinification have created a more subtle reality. Among the whites, it describes Meursault as rich and fat on the palate with a taste of hazelnut, Puligny-Montrachet as combining grace with a remarkable concentration, and white Chassagne-Montrachet as rounded and often opulent. From Meursault onwards, the BIVB says, the whites are very diverse in aromatic profile, from Bâtard-Montrachet to less well-known Saint-Aubin and Santenay.
JancisRobinson.com notes that in both the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune the best vineyards lie along a narrow band of limestone facing south-east. The BIVB's Côte de Nuits village sheets give exposures of east to south-east for Gevrey-Chambertin, east for Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny, and mostly east or south-east for Nuits-Saint-Georges. In Morey-Saint-Denis the soils are limestone and clay-limestone from the Middle Jurassic, with white Bathonien Oolite up-slope and fossiliferous Bajocien limestone at the foot (BIVB).
The BIVB's Côte de Beaune-Villages sheet dates the Côte de Beaune to the Upper Jurassic and calls it a little younger than the Côte de Nuits, with gentler slopes and more varied hillsides. Its sheets record southerly exposures at several sites: south-east to south-west for Corton, which the BIVB says is not an arrangement frequently found in the Côte; south-west for much of Corton-Charlemagne; east and south for the Montrachet Grands Crus; and south-east rather than east for Volnay. The BIVB's Meursault sheet says the hard Comblanchien limestone that disappears deep underground around Nuits-Saint-Georges reappears at Meursault.
Describing the Côte de Nuits and Hautes Côtes de Nuits together, the BIVB calls the area the center for the region's Grands Crus and says Pinot Noir is used for the majority of the Bourgogne region's Grands Crus, of which it counts 33. By commune, its appellation sheets give Gevrey-Chambertin 9 Grands Crus, Morey-Saint-Denis 5, Chambolle-Musigny 2 and Vosne-Romanée 6. The BIVB says the Clos de Vougeot's 50.59 ha lie within walls built 5 centuries ago and are divided among numerous owners, while Romanée-Conti, with a 2022 production area of 1.81 ha, has always been a singly-held entity.
The BIVB lists seven Côte de Beaune Grand Cru appellations: Corton, Corton-Charlemagne, Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Montrachet, it says, is the cradle of five white Grands Crus, grown in Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet; Montrachet itself had a 2022 production area of 7.79 ha. The hill of Corton produces white Corton-Charlemagne and mainly red Corton, and Corton is one of two Grand Cru appellations, with Chablis Grand Cru, that carry additional geographical denominations; only its reds may add the name of their Climat (BIVB).
The BIVB's Côte de Nuits list of Village appellations, some with Climats classified as Premiers Crus, runs to 10 names: Chambolle-Musigny, Côte de Nuits-Villages, Fixin, Gevrey-Chambertin, Marsannay, Marsannay rosé, Morey-Saint-Denis, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée and Vougeot. Nuits-Saint-Georges, which the BIVB says gives its name to the Côte de Nuits, includes 41 Premiers Crus Climats; Gevrey-Chambertin has 26, Chambolle-Musigny 24 (including Les Amoureuses) and Morey-Saint-Denis 20 (BIVB).
The BIVB's Côte de Beaune list runs to 20 Village appellations, from Aloxe-Corton, Auxey-Duresses, Beaune and Blagny to Santenay, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Volnay, and includes Côte de Beaune and Côte de Beaune-Villages. Chassagne-Montrachet includes 55 Premiers Crus Climats, Beaune 42, Volnay 29, Pommard 28 (the best known being Les Rugiens and Les Epenots), Meursault 19 and Puligny-Montrachet 17 (BIVB). Red wines from 14 Côte de Beaune villages may be sold as Côte de Beaune-Villages, an arrangement from which Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard and Volnay are excluded (BIVB).
The BIVB says the name "Vin de Nuits" was used for all the wines of the Côte de Nuits, and that some have named its terroir the Champs-Elysées of Bourgogne. The Clos de Vougeot was founded around 1110 AD by the monks of nearby Cîteaux, who remained its owners until the French Revolution (1789), and the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, founded in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1934, holds its chapters at the Clos's château (BIVB).
The BIVB says all the wines of the Côte de Beaune were once called "Vin de Beaune" or "Pinot Vermeil", and that it was not until 1936 that the wines were classified under the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée system. The monks of Cîteaux planted vines in Meursault as early as 1098 (BIVB). The BIVB calls Beaune the capital of Bourgogne's wine trade, with the huge cellars of its négociant houses and the annual Hospices de Beaune wine auction, held on the third Sunday of November.
Choose the Côte de Nuits for Pinot Noir from the area the BIVB calls the center for the Bourgogne region's Grands Crus, with village styles that JancisRobinson.com describes as running from the robust, long-lived wines of Gevrey-Chambertin and Nuits-St-Georges to the finesse and elegance of Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée, and look to Marsannay for the only Village appellation making all three colours. Choose the Côte de Beaune for Chardonnay from Meursault onwards, including the five Montrachet Grands Crus, and from Corton-Charlemagne, and for Pinot Noir from Volnay, Pommard and Beaune. For less familiar names, the BIVB points to Côte de Beaune whites from Saint-Aubin and Santenay, and red Côte de Beaune-Villages can come from any of 14 villages.
- Côte d'Or = Côte de Nuits (north) + Côte de Beaune (south), per Decanter. BIVB: Côte de Nuits around 20km from Dijon to Corgoloin, in parts 200 meters wide; Côte de Beaune 20km from Ladoix-Serrigny to the Maranges hillsides, never more than a few hundred meters wide.
- Colour split (BIVB): the Côte de Nuits mainly produces red wines, with Chardonnay whites fewer and farther between; around Beaune the vineyards are mainly Pinot Noir (Volnay, Pommard, Ladoix), and Chardonnay dominates from Meursault onwards. Marsannay is the only Village appellation making all three colours.
- Grands Crus (BIVB): 33 in Bourgogne; the Côte de Nuits is the center for them (Gevrey-Chambertin 9, Morey-Saint-Denis 5, Chambolle-Musigny 2, Vosne-Romanée 6). Côte de Beaune list: Corton, Corton-Charlemagne and the five white Montrachet Grands Crus.
- Corton and Chablis Grand Cru are the two Grand Cru appellations with additional geographical denominations; only red Corton may add a Climat name (BIVB).
- Premier Cru counts (BIVB): Nuits-Saint-Georges 41, Gevrey-Chambertin 26; Chassagne-Montrachet 55, Beaune 42, Meursault 19. Côte de Beaune-Villages is red only and excludes Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard and Volnay.
Sources and last verified
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