Didier Fornerol - Hautes Cotes de Nuits Rouge 2021

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Hautes-Côtes de Nuits is a subregion of the Burgundy wine region located to the west of the Côte de Nuits subregion. While Côte de Nuits consists of vineyards located on or close to the main Côte d'Or escarpment, Hautes-Côtes de Nuits covers the area on top of the escarpment, and the adjacent area of various valleys and slopes. Only one appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, covers the entire subregion; there are no specific AOCs named after villages in this subregion, and also no Premier Cru vineyards. This AOC may be used for red and rosé wines with Pinot noir as the main grape variety, as well as white wines with Chardonnay as the main grape variety, and was created in 1961.

The AOC covers a number of communes in the Côte-d'Or department: 16 communes situated above the escarpment (the actual Hautes Côtes), and the top parts of four communes that are mainly situated in Côte de Nuits. The border between Hautes-Côtes de Nuits and Hautes-Côtes de Beaune to the south passes through Magny-lès-Villers.

Didier Fornerol Description

Didier Fornerol was the vineyard manager at Domaine de L’Arlot. Fornerol learned his winemaking skills by his father’s side, and took over his family’s domaine in 1996. Today, Fornerol carries out all the vineyard tasks with passion: pruning, trellising, treatments, and manual harvest. He controls operations from winemaking to bottling with the utmost care. The domaine is made up of 6 hectares in the village of Corgoloin (3.70 hectares of Côtes de Nuits-Villages red and 0.60 hectares of Côtes de Nuits-Villages white) and very small amounts of Passetoutgrain, Aligoté and Bourgogne Regionale. The vineyard is managed using minimal amounts of synthetic treatment products (lutte raisonnée) and the young vines are strictly pruned to limit their yields. Jean-Pierre de Smet joined the winemaking team upon his retirement from Domaine de l’Arlot and works closely with Didier on all aspects of the winemaking. An avid believer in whole cluster fermentation, Didier makes wines that are a prime example of old school Burgundy at its best!