Nuits St Georges 1er cru Les Boudots 2023 Domaine Benoit Chevallier

The Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots 2023 from Domaine Benoît Chevallier is a remarkable bottle from one of the most admired first growths on the Côte de Nuits. Positioned at the exact boundary with Vosne-Romanée, this climat gives its wines an elegance and finesse that sets them distinctly apart from the more southerly sites of the appellation. In the precise and demanding hands of Benoît Chevallier, a biodynamic vigneron working just 4 hectares, Les Boudots reveals the full nobility of a terroir with singular personality.

The Boudots terroir

Les Boudots sits at the northern edge of Nuits-Saint-Georges, immediately adjacent to Aux Malconsorts, a first cru of Vosne-Romanée. This boundary position is crucial, conferring on the wines an elegance closer to Vosne-Romanée than to the power typical of central or southern Nuits. The slope is pronounced, reaching up to 18 percent, ensuring remarkable drainage and naturally constraining vine vigour. Limestone soils, composed of rock, marl, sand, red silts and large stones, marry concentration with mineral finesse. The eastern exposure provides generous morning sun, favouring slow and harmonious ripening of Pinot Noir. Concentration, depth and minerality characterise this climat, whose elegant tannins suggest a clear kinship with its Vosnian neighbour.

Tasting profile

The robe is deep, intense and luminous ruby. The nose shows remarkable aromatic complexity: blackcurrant, ripe red fruits and wild bramble mingle with spicy notes of pepper and fennel, complemented by floral touches of violet and rose. A fine earthy depth and a whisper of liquorice complete this perfumed and captivating bouquet. On the palate, the wine reveals itself both rigorous and silky, with generous substance and lively acidity that brings balance and length. The tannins are present yet elegant, refined and precise. The finish is long, persistent and mineral, with a natural tension that speaks to good ageing potential. A wine that impresses less through power than through subtlety and depth.

The domaine

Benoît Chevallier founded his domaine in 2019, taking over family vineyard land cultivated for three generations in Vosne-Romanée. A former software engineer, he now tends his vines alone, including parcels in first cru sites on both Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-Saint-Georges. From his first vintage, the domaine was awarded the Young Talent Trophy and praised by Wine Advocate as among the rare new talents to emerge from Vosne-Romanée in recent years. Biodynamic viticulture is practised across the entire domaine, with the constant ambition to reveal, vintage after vintage, the purity and authenticity of each terroir on the Côte de Nuits.

Food pairings

This Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots pairs beautifully with beef fillet en croûte with truffles, roast lamb with Provence herbs, veal chops with morels, or game birds such as roasted woodcock. It also finds fine harmony with aged soft cheeses such as Époisses or Soumaintrain.