Vineyard Insight: Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Didiers

There are many vineyards in Burgundy, and even quite highly regarded 1er crus can be almost unknown, if the owners and vignerons producing the wines are under the market radar.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Didiers is one of these 1er crus … located in the northern part of Premeaux-Prissey, just south of the border to Nuits-Saint-Georges.

This 2.84 ha 1er cru is located just north of Les Forets and just south of the acclaimed Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Saint-Georges.

Unknown and forgotten … why

Les Didiers is a monopole owned by Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges, and is sold on auction and bottled by different vignerons who is doing the elevage of the wine. In principle the same as the Hospices de Beaune auction .. but in reality not, as the media and market focus on the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auctions seems quite limited compared to the auction in Beaune.

As a consequence no acclaimed producer is building a brand for Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Didiers, and the result is a more or less forgotten terroir although it’s located just next to Les Saint-Georges.

A historic view on Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Didiers

Going back to good old Lavalle¹ in 1855 we find that Les Didiers (2.84 ha) was already highly regarded, and classified Hors Lignes alongside Aux Foréts, Aux Corvées and Aux Pagets in Premeaux and Les Saint-Georges, Vaucarins, Cailles, Porrets, Pruliere, Boudots, Cras, Murgers and Thorey in Nuits-Saint-Georges. The owners were according to Lavalle l’Hospice de Nuits (1,33 ha) and Moissenet-Landriots with 1 ha in 1855.

Moving on to the 1862 classification² Les Didiers was classified 1re Classe alongside Les Forets, Aux Perdrix, Auc Corvées, Les Argilliéres, Clos Arlots and parts of Clos des Fourches in Premaux .

Lastly Rodier³ (1920) classified Les Didiers as Premiéres Cuvée alongside Les Foréts, Les Corvées, Les Corvées_Pagets, Les Perdrix, Clos Saint-Marc, Clos des Argilliéres, Clos Arlot and parts of Clos des Fourchers in Premeaux and Les Saint-Georges, Les Vaucrins, Les Pruliers, Les Cailles,Les Porrets, Aux Mugers, Aux Cras, Aux Boudots, Les Richemonnes, Aux Chaignots, Aux Bousselots, parts of La Rue de Chaux, Les Procés, Les Ronciéres, La Perriére, Les Poulettesand Les Chabaeufs in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Rodier mentioned two owners on Les Didiers in 1920, Hospices de Nuits and M. Japiot.

The classification of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Premeaux

Taking a look at the classifications it’s quite clear that all the well known sources have problems the ranking the terroirs in Nuits-Saint-Georges … and as a consequence all the better vineyards are regarded as equals .. more or less!