The nose is unusually dark and enticing for a Pinot Noir of its pedigree — look for black raspberry, violets, and a whisper of menthol. The mouth is crisp, full, and sturdy, with ripe young tannins.
It took more than 40 years for Jean Gros, and then Michel to put back together the unique parcel of Fontaine Saint Martin in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, around the village of Arcenant.
This hillside slope of 7 hectares, facing east-south-east like the Côte de Nuits, rises in tiers at an elevation between 350 and 390m. The vineyard overlooks the small valley and the Cistercian abbey of Lieu-Dieu des Champs. This abbey for nuns, founded about 1127, owned vines on this hillside.
After the total destruction of the vineyard by phylloxera at the end of the XIXth century, the parcel of vines was largely overgrown by the forest.
Jean, then Michel, undertook clearing and reclaiming the parcel from 1976. Michel planted 4 hectares in Pinot Noir between 1981 and 1986, then the remaining 3 hectares in Chardonnay from 1987. These plantings were completed with the last parcel of 1 ha, acquired in 2007 before replanting in 2009.
Michel has always vinified and aged these different parcels of Hautes-Côtes separately, with the final blending only taking place shortly before bottling. In this way, he has been able to measure over almost 30 vintages the interest and originality of this wine from the Fontaine Saint Martin.
