Complex nose of red berries, savory and wet earth with just a hint of candied citrus peel. Quite a bold and seriously structured wine with excellent depth for the challenging vintage, but nothing even remotely approaching a hard edge. This will need some time to give its best, but the balance is there at the simultaneously crisp and velvety finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Best from 2025.

The 2021 Nuits Saint-Georges Clos des Forêts Saint Georges 1er Cru is more expressive than the Clos de l'Arlot on the nose: vivid scents of raspberry, cranberry, sous-bois and just a very slight steeliness. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp, almost angular tannins, fresh and very tensile, quite saline to the extent where I fully agree that any stem addition would have been superfluous. Persistent and graceful on the finish, this is superb.

This substantial wine has a ripe plummy fruit on the initial attack adorned with notes of smoke, earth, spice and an almost savoury animal complexity. The texture is dense and tannic, with plenty of substance and a lingering, complex finish. The massive cuvée represents half of the surface area of the domaine—7.2 hectares, right next to premier cru Les St-Georges—and it is usually vinified in six different cuvées and blended later in order to account for variation in ripeness. In 2021, however, there were only enough grapes for three.