Louis Latour Nuits Saint Georges Damodes 1er Cru

Louis Latour — a house whose vine ownership traces to 1731 and whose Corton Grancey cuverie, built 1832–1834, was the first purpose-built winery in France — applies its gravity-flow, open-vat philosophy to one of Nuits-Saint-Georges' most northerly Premiers Crus. Les Damodes sits at the appellation's boundary with Vosne-Romanée, where the limestone-bedrock soils carry a higher proportion of iron-rich clay than the more gravel-dominant southern Nuits lieux-dits, lending the wine a firmer, more structured tannic architecture and a darker, earthier fruit register than its neighbours to the south.

100% hand-harvested Pinot Noir, fully destemmed and crushed, ferments for approximately 14 days in large open wooden vats with manual pigeage throughout, with gravity-only transport at every stage. Aging proceeds in French oak (15–35% new), barrels coopered in-house from air-dried French oak staves, for 10–12 months at medium toast. The house's openly acknowledged and categorically unique practice of flash-pasteurisation (approx. 72°C, 2–3 seconds) before bottling eliminates fining entirely — the wine falls clear naturally over 2–3 months post-treatment, a transgression no other major Burgundy négociant replicates or admits to.

The 2019 vintage in the Côte de Nuits delivered ripe, generous fruit with natural structural depth; Les Damodes' clay-limestone terroir channels that ripeness into a wine with grip and mid-palate density that rewards 3–6 years of further cellaring.