Robert Chevillon is one of the most conscientious winemakers in the entire Côte d'Or. The succession of Nuits-St.-Georges which emerge from his cellar are among the finest in the commune; not the dark, lumpy, rustic concoctions which often appear under this over-exposed appellation, but wines of real depth and complexity, classy and stylish.

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Chevillon Pêre et Fils - waiting for the flag to drop? abov

A tall grey-haired and dignified man, Robert has the aloof air of someone completely secure in his own convictions about how things should be accomplished. 'A job well done' is what he likes to see. He is not someone who appears to court publicity - but seems to attract it despite himself - with an impatient manner which gives the impression that visitors in general, and those who might want to buy something, in particular, are a diversion he could well do without.

He lives with his somewhat over-protective wife, Christine, in an ordinary house in one of the many backstreets of Nuits. Their sons, Bertrand and Denis have recently joined the team and now work with Robert full-time. They rarely leave, certainly not for anything as frivolous as a holiday, content rather for the world to come to them.

That this happens is evident from a miscellany of press cuttings, in various stages of disintegration, fixed to a piece of pegboard on the wall of the packing room. Wherever the family name appears, it is carefully high-lighted, although the import of much of the comment probably escapes them, being mostly in English, Swedish, Dutch or German, languages none of which they understand.

Although Robert stoutly claims that his Domaine has no history, he has produced an excellent, pamphlet setting out what there is. This document consists of a map on one side, showing the climats in Nuits in which they have vines and, on the inside, a list of the various medals obtained since 1976 at the annual Paris wine fair. The middle page contains a resumé of traditional measures of surface and volume, together with some delightful Burgundian proverbs relating to the vine: 'With good wine, good bread and good flesh one can pack off the doctor on his travels'; 'Hailed vine, smoky wine'; 'If there are more apples than pears, drink your wine, if more pears than apples, keep it', etc. The final page is devoted to Chevillon history.

The atmosphere of stability and changelessness which pervades the Côte is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that it is virtually impossible to find a vigneron whose forbears have not been resident in it for less than a couple of centuries. If by chance one does stumble across someone without this ancestral crust, then there is invariably an elaborate 'histoire’ prominently featuring an in-law or other respectable relative to fill the gap.

As far as can be understood, it would appear that the current branch of Chevillons materialised from a largely undocumented mist of Chevillons, all vignerons somewhere along the Côte in the late 19th century. From this primordial genealogical plasma there emerged Symphorien Chevillon who exploited vines for himself, whilst working as a vigneron and caviste for a local négotiant His land consisted of 30 ares (>1/3 ha) com-prising AOC wine, vin de table and cassis.

Symphorien died at Nuits in 1926. His only son, Eugene-Francois, born in 1887, worked mostly part-time for local vigneron-proprietors up to 1912 before two years of military service, marriage in 1914, then five years of war as a bandsman. Returning in 1919 he took over the family Domaine, such as it was, and started buying small parcels of Nuits Premier Cru and share-cropping others.

Up until 1940 sales of wine were so poor that Eugene-Francois, a competent musician, formed his own orchestra which played at local functions to supplement the family income needed to support his wife, Marthe, and five children.

Upon his sudden death in 1943, Marthe and the children were forced to carry on making wine and looking after the vines. In 1946 the vineyards were divided between the two sons of the house Maurice and Georges (father of Robert's cousin, Michel). Following his marriage in 1937, Maurice continued to add to his share of the vineyards - principally Premiers Crus - acquiring along the way a couple of mobile stills to augment his income.

Robert was born in 1938 and married Christine in 1961. The two stills continue to function during the winter for the production of 'Marc de Bourgogne and 'Eaux de Vie'.

The Domaine presently extends to 12.88 ha, all in Nuits apart from some regionales and 10 ares of Aligoté. The list includes 8 Premiers Crus, 3.25 ha of Nuits tout court and 17.50 ares of white Nuits. The vines belong principally to the family, but some are worked on a half-fruit share-cropping basis.

Whilst much of the vignoble is between 25 and 40 years old, reflecting the degeneration from poor rootstock and low disease resistance of post-war plantings, there are three magnificently old plots still in production: 1.18 ha of Les Cailles averaging 77 years; 1.55 ha Les Vaucrains averaging 78 with 0.25 ha over a century old; and 0.63 ha of Les St.-Georges of 76 years old.

An integral part of Robert's scheme is to let vines go on producing as long as possible, replacing individual plants as they give in. With 10 000 plants per ha and 13 ha in production, some 600 individual vines need replacing annually. New plantings are on a mixture of standard clones, with young vines being trained en gobelet for the first 7 years or so to restrain their natural vigour. A strict evasivage and green-pruning, when necessary, both before and at veraison also help reduce yields.

Robert sets great store by an intimate knowledge of his vines. He will tell you that the Roncières and the Pruliers always ripen first and that those vineyards nearest to Vosne have a tendency to rot, particularly lower down the hillsides, so that they must be picked first.

When one grower in a commune makes markedly better wine than most of his neighbours with comparable land, it is natural to ask, '’Why, how does he manage it?' Intriguing as the questions may be, Robert Chevillon can think of no obvious answer - no gross differences in viticulture or vinification to which he can point in explanation.

One practice does set him apart from most of his Nuits colleagues - a markedly longer and slower fermentation. Believing that the extracts obtained in alcoholic solution - in other words towards the end of fermentation are better than those obtained in aqueous solution - at the beginning - he allows his cuves to macerate for three to four weeks, or longer as in 1990. Pre-fermentive maceration
he regards as no more than a passing fashion - rather like nouvelle cuisine.

There is not much restraint on temperature either - it is, allowed to rise to 35°C before serpentine heat-exchangers are put into action to cool things down. Undoubtedly the removal of up to 70% of the stalks contributes to naturally higher temperatures; however Robert likes to leave some in the vats: ‘They are there for something,' he muses.

The wines remain on their fine lees until a second racking, without air, just before the next vintage. They are then fined, in cask, left a further 4-6 weeks sur colle before being reunified in bulk, lightly filtered and bottled - a total elevage of some 18 months. Robert has a horror of contract bottlers - 'when I see the froth on a Chambertin…'

Asking Robert Chevillon to account for the great finesse be manages to achieve in his Nuits merely provokes a verbal shrug of the shoulders. Perhaps it comes from the long cuvaison, perhaps from the slow, natural malos; there again, it may be the relatively small proportion of new wood (about one third in rich vintages, less or none at all in others) or the policy of leaving a proportion of fine lees to nourish the wine throughout its elévage. Equally, the contribution from the sprinkling of white vines in each vineyard (about 0.8% by volume) cannot be discounted. Whatever the explanation for the exceptional Chevillon quality - there it is, year after year.

Before 1984 all the produce of the white vines went into the red cuvees. Now, Robert makes about 1,000 bottles of an excellent Nuits-St.-Georges Blanc from 20-30-year-old Pinot Blanc vines. The must is fermented in cask - no more than a third new wood - and bottled without filtration after 14-15 months. The result is a wine of attractive golden colour, with a nose of honey and almonds and a firm, tightish structure; delicious after a few years in bottle, it ages well. No doubt Robert has kept back a few bottles of the first few vintages to follow their evolution.

The Nuits-St.-Georges cuvee comes from vineyards on both sides of the village. The wine from the Prémeaux sector has slightly less finesse but a touch more richness than that from the Vosne sector; the two well complement each other, producing a harmonious blend with a finely judged balance of fruit, acidity and tannins.

Les Chaignots and Bousselots, both bordering Nuits on the Vosne side, are a notch up in concentration and personality - the former with less natural acidity, but sufficient compensatory tannins to see it through.

The Les Ronciéres is a wine which devel-ops slowly from a base of rich fruit, with moderate levels of round, ripe tannins. The soils here are quite light and high in limestone, in a semi-sloping setting. Les Perriéres, just above Ronciéres on the Prémeaux side of the village, gives a wine with marginally more structure than its neighbour which is always marked by its finesse. Les Cailles, which adjoins Prémeaux, has a deep, clay-limestone soil, which gives long-lived, solid wines. From Robert's 78-year-old vines, the elements of structure are accentuated – producing wine of considerable depth and richness, with a buttress of firm, but not aggressive, tannin.

Just above Les Cailles is Les Vaucrains, which has a similarly deep soil; however, its high ironstone content seems to impart a hardness in the form of pronounced tannin and a big angular structure. A good Vaucrains is relatively austere in its youth, without the round charm of Les Cailles or the finesse of Les Perrières. However, a decade or so in bottle sees these constituents integrate into a less awkward, more polished item, which is well worth waiting for, especially in good vintages. A quarter of a hectare of Robert's holding is planted with century-old vines, which give his Vaucrains a magnificent, craggy depth.

The finest of the Nuits Premiers Crus, Les St.-Georges, adjoins Les Cailles, at its northerly boundary. Although broadly similar in soil type to Vaucrains, the wine has a much more soft, fleshy character, with plenty of plump fruit from 75-year-old vines. Robert's Les St.-Georges is usually as good a Nuits as you can hope to find - a big, fleshy item, with bags of fruit, great concentration and overriding class. Not perhaps the unbri-dled aristocracy of a Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru, but rather a well-covered courtesan who has gone in for a little body-building - and all the more attractive for it!

The Chevillons produce yardstick Nuits-St.-Georges with care and devotion. Robert is not a man given to hyperbole or self-aggrandisement, but an industrious vigneron who thoroughly merits his exalted reputation. Perhaps one day he will allow himself the luxury of a short holiday; meanwhile he has retiled his cellar steps - to replace those worn out by four generations of Chevillons, not to mention phalanxes of unwanted visitors.