The 2020 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Roncières 1er Cru, which was affected by hail, had just a small reduction on the nose. The palate is easier to read with attractive, quite tensile red cherry and blueberry fruit. The oak is nicely integrated here and there is a sorbet-like freshness on the finish that has plenty of joie-de-vivre. It’s a wine that almost says...what hail? (NM)

There was a later malolactic here and there is still a touch of reduction thereafter. Dark black colour with purple rim. Definitely a reductive nose. The fruit pulls out very nicely behind with raspberry and strawberry, the tannins are barely toughened by either hail or reduction. Long finish.

Offering up aromas of dark berries, cherries, warm spices, woodsmoke and petals, Chevillon's 2020 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Roncières is medium to full-bodied, ample and concentrated, with an enveloping core of fruit, ripe, powdery tannins and lively balancing acids. The 2020 vintage has turned out very well indeed at Domaine Robert Chevillon. With finished alcohols around 13.7% to 13.9%, these are deep and powerful wines that remain nicely balanced, and they're built to age. Indeed, in their vibrant, concentrated style, they remind me somewhat of the domaine's 2016s, something one wouldn't have thought possible on paper. The bad news is that yields were down, the Chevillon brothers having lost the equivalent of one entire harvest over the course of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 vintages. As I've written before, this is one of my favorite addresses in all of Burgundy. Old vines, cultivated soils, moderate yields and long fermentations with entirely destemmed grapes are the order of the day at this address, with the Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes seeing some 20% new oak and the premiers crus 30%. Nuits' Tonnellerie Sirugue is the dominant supplier of barrels. (WK)