Philippe Pacalet Nuits St George 2019

The iconoclastic Philippe Pacalet, who is the nephew of the late Marcel Lapierre and who was for years the régisseur (estate manager) for the deceased Henri Roch of Domaine Prieuré-Roch, started his own négociant operation in 2001. He moved operations from Gevrey to Nuits and now to Beaune and has installed himself in the old de Montille cellars near the railroad station, which I might add are ice cold. He briefly noted that 2019 “was a very hot and especially dry vintage where the poor flowering cost us a lot of yield. Our yields across the board came in between 20 and 25 hl/ha and, remarkably enough, those for chardonnay were even lower than for pinot. Potential alcohols, not surprisingly given the low yields and high heat, were strong as they averaged right at 13.5% for both colors. As usual with the reds, I used 100% whole clusters and vinifications presented no problems. As to the wines, they are quite concentrated and absolutely built-to-age.” Pacalet also noted that the wines either were, or will be, bottled without fining or filtration and it’s interesting to note that he is one of the few remaining domaines that still do the mise (bottling) by hand. Allen Meadows, BURGHOUND.COM