Spirits category

The interest around these areas is being driven by some different groups. The first, and arguably most important, is a band of locals. They have family roots in the Hautes-Côtes and have been consistently driving up quality. In the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, the village of Meloisey is a real hotspot; the likes of Gaëtane and Martial Carré prove you can make excellent reds and whites from this sleepy village. Their best vineyard is La Perrière, a chalky, south-facing slope which offers views down the valley over Pommard and the plain of the Saône river, all the way to Mont Blanc on a clear day.

Meloisey is also the village where Sébastien Magnien grew up. And although he has decamped to Meursault, his excellent Clos de la Perrière – from a walled section of this same plot – shows how well these wines can age. He and the Carrés have understood the importance of making wines which taste great young, but you should give this wine at least five years in the cellar to get the full breadth of flavours. This is a spicy, crunchy red with brambly summer berries and a mouth-watering limestone finish.

Claire Naudin’s vineyards in Magny-lès- Villers straddle the border between the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune and Hautes-Côtes de Nuits. I could spend hours with Claire. Her vines are farmed organically. She uses ever-morecreative methods to treat her vineyards without recourse to chemicals. Or indeed, to copper and sulphur; though permitted under organic farming, they can be problematic. Claire uses whole bunches and doesn’t use sulphur, making for generously perfumed reds and characterful whites which completely smash the image of wines from the Hautes-Côtes as simple brasserie quaffers. Her Aligoté is so interesting and atypical that it regularly fails the blind tastings to be classified as Bourgogne Aligoté. Her Hautes-Côtes reds – named after flowers found in the vineyards – match the best wines of the Côte de Nuits in their silken texture and sophistication.