Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges: a vintage that lives up to high expectations

iDealwine has unveiled its 65th edition of the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auction from a year that outgoing technical director Jean-Marc Moron called an “incomparable vintage”. 

The auction this year will see around 80 pièces (228-litre barrels) go under the hammer next month, comprising 19 different wines including new parcels that were bequeathed to the Hospices by a local family. Overall the estate is made up of plots around Nuits Saint-Georges, which includes eight Villages appellation and nine premier crus including a rare white Nuits Saint-Georges plot, Premier Cru Les Terres Blanches. One of the plots, Les Didiers is solely owned by the Hospices de Nuit.

The wines will be sold in aid of the local hospital the Hospices Civils de Beaune (which groups together the Beaune medical centre, the hospitals of Arnay-le-Duc, Seurre and Nuits-St-Georges, and the training institute for nurses and auxiliaries), with one pièce sold in aid of local animal assisted therapy charity, Ani’nomad.

Special vintage

The 2025 vintage is “extra special”, iDealwine noted, as it is the last vintage that will be vinified by Hospices de Nuits’ technical director Jean-Marc Moron, who is retiring after 36 harvests at the estate. “It is an honour and a great joy for us to promote these wines attentively sculptured with precision by this winemaker who knows and understands the characteristics of each parcel belonging to the Hospices de Nuits like the back of his hand,” the catalogue notes.

Moron will hand over the reins of the estate to Laurence Danel who joins the team from Domaine Fery in the Côte de Nuits, at the end of the auction itself.

As Moron explains, the 2025 is a ‘vintage ending in 5’ that “lives up to high expectations”;  “structured, elegant, and atypical: combining the characteristics of a warm year with the hallmarks of a cool vintage”.

The colour and pH levels are in the range “typical of a hot year”, he said, while the sugar levels are like those seen in an average year. “The wines are balanced, charming and very Burgundian in style”

“This vintage is living up to the usual reputation of years ending in a ‘5’. It’s an incomparable vintage – elegant, fleshy and round. We expect a lot from it. It has the intense colour usual of a vintage ending in a ‘5’ but its structure is more delicate. With the harvests beginning early, the grapes were not over ripe, remaining fresh and elegant.”

And while the vintage may be “atypical”, the quality is “superb”.  “2025 has put itself forward as a serious contender to be a great, or even a stellar vintage.”

Weather report

This followed favourable summer conditions from May to September, which saw regular rainfall that helped preserve the water table and prevent the vines suffering from water stress right up to the harvest. By the time harvest took place on 3 September in good weather conditions, the quality of the bunches were excellent, with virtually no sorting needed. The weather conditions however didn’t give any indication to expect low yields “and that surprise was revealed during the harvest”, Moron said.  There was an average of 21 hectolitres/ hectare, lower than expect, but still more generous than the extremely low yielding 2024 vintage, which produced just 9.5 hl/ha.

Last year saw nearly €860,000  raised for the Hospices Civils de Beaune, an increase in the average hammer price of the pieces by +41.5% to  €22,422.

The estate

The auction itself will be held on the afternoon of Sunday 8 March at the Château du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy, with registration in advance required to bid online, by telephone, or in person (see here ). The auction itself is a culmination of a diverse programme of activities  that are designed to allow people to get to know Nuits-Saint-Georges wines and their producers better.

This year saw ten of the wines at Wine Paris, including the 2025 vintage for the following Crus:

• Nuits Saint Georges les Maladières – les Brûlées cuvée Grangier
  • Gevrey Chambertin Champs Chenys cuvée Irène Noblet
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru Les Vignerondes Cuvée Bernarde Delesclache
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru Corvées Pagets cuvée Saint Laurent
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru Les Didiers Cuvée Duret
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru les Saint Georges Cuvée des Sires de Vergy

Alongside older vintages:

• Nuits Saint Georges les Maladières les Brûlées cuvée Grangier 2019
  • Gevrey Chambertin Champs Chenys Cuvée Irène Noblet 2018
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru les Vignerondes cuvée Bernarde Delesclache 2020
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru les Didiers cuvée Duret 2017 and 2015
  • Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru les Didiers cuvée Fagon 2019

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