Stage town for the second time
Municipality in Côte-d'Or (21)
Population: 5,400 (Nuitons, Nuitonnes)
Specialities: Burgundy wines (32 estates, 140 winegrowers), crémants, liqueurs, red fruit, marbled ham, Bush de Nuits (Belgian beer matured in wooden tuns that have contained Burgundy from Nuits-Saint-Georges).
Personalities: François Thurot (1727-1760, privateer), Jacques Duret (19th-century botanical surgeon), Camille Rodier (founder of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin), Félix Tisserand (astronomer).
Sport: 40 clubs (rugby, handball, running, pétanque, boules lyonnaises). Events: wine sale half-marathon, pedestrian bullfight.
Events: Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges wine sale, cheese festival, Burgundy wine festival, Sons d'une Nuits d'été (music festival).
Economy: wine-growing (the great wines of the Côte des Nuits), vine and wine-related trades (corks, barrels), fruit juice bottling (Refresco France group), cheese-making, printing, wine tourism.
Signature: “Nuits-Saint-Georges, City of Space”
Labels: Climates of Burgundy vineyards UNESCO World Heritage Site / Vignobles et découvertes / 3 flowers
Websites: www.ville-nuits-saint-georges.fr / www.ot-nuits-st-georges.fr / www.cotedor.fr
NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES AND CYCLING
In 2017, when the Tour de France came to Nuits-Saint-Georges for the first time, it was Marcel Kittel who won the bunch sprint, the third of his five victories in the edition. Burgundy wine appellations have frequently featured on the Tour route, from Pouilly-en-Auxois (1975) to Mâcon (2012) and Chablis (2007). It is certainly the most prestigious of them all that has already been honoured in 2017, with the wines of Côte de Nuits standing out as the most prestigious in the world (Romanée-Conti, La Tâche...). The commune has also hosted two stages of Paris-Nice, won by two world-class sprinters: Freddy Maertens in 1977 and Matthew Goss in 2011. The Australian rider would go on to win Milan-San Remo.
SIGHTS:
- Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges
Creation: 17th century.
Style: Baroque.
History and features: founded in the 17th century, the hospital is still in operation and boasts a rich heritage, including a pharmacy dating back to 1813. Comprising 488 earthenware, ceramic and glass jars and bottles, it still houses many of the products and instruments used to make remedies. The exhibition of medical objects completes the care of the body, while a visit to the chapel is a reminder of the importance of caring for the soul. Even today, the harvest is auctioned every year on the last Sunday in March: this is the Hospices de Nuits Wine Auction at the Château du Clos de Vougeot, headquarters of the famous brotherhood of the Knights of the Tastevin.
Listed as: Historical Monument since 2015, followed by the pharmacy in 2017.
- Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (Brotherhood of the Winetaster Knights)
In November 1934, Georges Faiveley and Camille Rodier founded the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin in the now-closed Nuiton cellar to promote Burgundy wines. The principle of the brotherhood is to induct members: winegrowers and winemakers as well as honorary members (personalities and celebrities) who will act as ambassadors for Burgundy wine locally and around the world. In 1938, the brotherhood created the Saint-Vincent Tournante (Rotating), an annual festival celebrating the patron saint of winegrowers in a different Burgundy wine-producing village. Today, on the last weekend in January, the festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors who come to taste wine in the village cellars and follow the procession of the Saint-Vincent Societies.
- Sons d'une Nuits d'Été Festival
Since 2005, this ambitious, eclectic festival has been staging a cultural event in the Nuits-Saint-Georges area every summer in July. It is organised by two local associations, Les Amis de Dansité and Round Minuits. The headliners in 2023 were Christophe Willem, Philippe Lavil and Charlie Winston.
- Burgundy Wine Festival
Held in the prestigious setting of the Maison de Nuits-Saint-Georges, the "Fête du Vin Bourru" welcomes over 5,000 visitors every October, who come to taste the year's Vin Bourru, the grape juice pressed in front of them.
- Château du Clos de Vougeot
Construction: 12th century to 1551.
Style: medieval.
History: the abbey of Cîteaux was granted land in the Côte-d'Or as early as 1100, on the banks of the Vouge river. The Cistercians had their vineyard planted with Pinot Noir. It then took its name around 1330, when the monks decided it was necessary to surround it with walls (clos = enclosure). In 1395, Philippe le Hardi decided to improve the quality of his wines and banned the cultivation of Gamay in favour of Pinot Noir. It was in 1551 that Jean XI Loisier had the present château built, and its reputation continued to grow: during the Revolution, when the 35,000 bottles in the cellar of Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duc de Penthièvres, were inventoried in 1793, the majority were found to be Clos wines. After the phylloxera crisis, the Clos was bought in 1889 by fifteen wine merchants from Beaune, Dijon and Nuits-Saint-Georges. In 1920, the Clos was bought by Côte-d'Or MP Étienne Camuzet, a major Vosne-Romanée winegrower. The Clos Vougeot appellation was created in 1937. Restored after the Second World War, the château, which still houses the monks' old wine-making facilities, became the property of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin in 1944.
Trivia: during the pontificate of Clement VI (1342-1352), the Burgundian Cistercians selected a "cuvée du pape" (pope vintage). This favour for a red wine was a novelty; until then, the most popular wines were white. The role played by the papal court in Avignon in this change in taste was essential. In 1370, Petrarch quipped that the cardinals' reluctance to leave Avignon for Rome was because they would be deprived of the "wines of Beaune".
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1948.
