What wine is the Côte de Nuits known for?

Red Burgundy — the greatest Pinot Noir on earth. The Côte de Nuits is the northern half of the Côte d'Or, a narrow strip of limestone running south from Dijon, and it's almost entirely red. Nearly every one of Burgundy's red Grands Crus sits here, in a handful of villages from Gevrey-Chambertin to Nuits-Saint-Georges. There's a little white made, but you come for the Pinot: perfumed, silky, ageless, and priced accordingly at the top.

What are the main villages of the Côte de Nuits?

Running north to south: Marsannay and Fixin at the top, then the heavyweight run of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée (with Flagey-Échézeaux) and Nuits-Saint-Georges. Gevrey has the most Grands Crus, Vosne-Romanée the most valuable, and Chambolle the most delicate. Each village stamps its own accent on the same grape — the whole point of the place.

Which is the most famous vineyard in the Côte de Nuits?

Romanée-Conti, in Vosne-Romanée — a tiny Grand Cru monopoly farmed by the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, and about the most coveted patch of vines in the world. Around it sit its near-equals: La Tâche, Richebourg, La Romanée and Romanée-Saint-Vivant. But 'famous' and 'drinkable' rarely overlap here — these are allocation-only trophies. The joy of the Côte de Nuits is the brilliant Village and Premier Cru wines you can actually buy.

Can you visit wineries in the Côte de Nuits?

Yes — many family domaines and the négociant houses in Nuits-Saint-Georges take visitors, most by appointment. The Route des Grands Crus threads all the great villages, and the Château du Clos de Vougeot in the middle of its famous walled vineyard is open to tour. The icons — the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti above all — are effectively shut to the public. Plan around the estates that want you there; a good local guide opens doors a cold email never will.

The Côte de Nuits: Burgundy's Red Heart

If Burgundy has a Champs-Élysées, this is it — and locals really do call it that. A five-mile ribbon of vines below Dijon, east-facing, tilted to catch the morning sun, holding the highest concentration of great red wine anywhere on the planet. The Côte de Nuits is the northern half of the Côte d'Or, and it is almost defiantly red: Pinot Noir, village after village, each pressing its own thumbprint into the same thin-skinned grape.

You arrive here already fluent in the ladder from Part 2. Good — because this is where the ladder's top rung gets crowded. Nearly every red Grand Cru in Burgundy is packed into the next few paragraphs. Let's walk it, north to south.

Gevrey-Chambertin: power and the king's grape

Start big. Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest of the great villages and the most muscular, its Pinot built on structure and dark fruit rather than perfume. It also carries more Grands Crus than any other commune — crowned by Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, the pair that reportedly stocked Napoleon's cellar, ringed by a whole family of crus that hyphenate the Chambertin name onto their own. The reference domaine is Armand Rousseau, whose bottlings define what Gevrey can be. Come here for red Burgundy with shoulders.

Morey-Saint-Denis: the quiet one

Slip south and the village shrinks. Morey-Saint-Denis is the overlooked middle child, wedged between two superstars, which is exactly why its wines can be the canniest buys on the slope — Gevrey's grip married to Chambolle's grace. It's dense with clos: the Grands Crus Clos de la Roche, Clos Saint-Denis, the monopole Clos de Tart and Clos des Lambrays all sit here. This is the home ground of Domaine Dujac, whose whole-cluster, perfumed style helped rewrite the modern Burgundian playbook.

Chambolle-Musigny: silk and lace

If Gevrey is power, Chambolle-Musigny is grace — the most delicate, floral, filigree reds in the Côte de Nuits, all rose petal and red berry over the finest bones. Its summit is Musigny, a Grand Cru many drinkers rank the most beautiful in all Burgundy, alongside a slice of Bonnes-Mares. Two houses own the conversation here: Domaine Georges Roumier and Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé, the latter the dominant holder of Musigny itself. Taste Chambolle next to Gevrey and you'll never again call Pinot Noir one-note.

Vougeot: one great wall

Tiny Vougeot is essentially one thing, and it's a monument: the Clos de Vougeot, fifty-odd hectares of walled Grand Cru first planted by Cistercian monks, now split between scores of owners whose bottles range from sublime to merely fine depending entirely on whose hands farmed which strip. At its heart stands the Château du Clos de Vougeot — the Renaissance cellars that anchor the whole appellation and one of the few grand set-pieces you can simply tour. Read the wall as proof of the lesson from Part 2: same Grand Cru, wildly different bottles, because the grower is half the wine.

Vosne-Romanée: the holy of holies

Then you reach Vosne-Romanée, and the prices detach from earth. This unassuming village, with its neighbour Flagey-Échézeaux, holds the most valuable vineyards in existence: Romanée-Conti and La Tâche — both monopoles of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti — plus Richebourg, La Romanée, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Échézeaux and Grands-Échézeaux. There's an old grower's line that in Vosne-Romanée there are no common wines, and it's about right. Beyond the untouchable icons, this is home to Domaine Leroy, the biodynamic legend, and the impeccable, more attainable Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg — proof you can drink the Vosne magic without a banker's allocation.

Vosne-Romanée is a few streets and a lot of vines. It is also, acre for acre, the most expensive farmland on earth. Stand in it once and the whole obsession makes sense.

Nuits-Saint-Georges: the workhorse with no crown

The strip ends at Nuits-Saint-Georges, the little town that gives the Côte de Nuits its name — and, in a lovely quirk, has no Grand Cru of its own. What it has instead is a deep bench of serious Premier Crus, firm and earthy and built to age, and the region's densest cluster of visitor-ready négociant cellars, led by Domaine Faiveley. It's the practical base camp of the northern slope, and often the best-value serious red on it. Just up the road, Domaine de la Vougeraie farms across the great villages from here.

Getting in — and getting around

The whole strip is stitched together by the Route des Grands Crus, France's oldest signposted wine road, and the single best way to see the Côte de Nuits is to follow it slowly — we lay out the full drive in the Route des Grands Crus itinerary. One honest word on access, the same as everywhere in Burgundy: the trophy domaines are trade-and-allocation only, and no amount of persistence opens the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's gate. Aim instead at the excellent family estates and the Nuits négociants who want visitors, and let a guide handle the appointments.

North is power and Pinot Noir. But cross into the southern half of the Côte d'Or and the whole region changes colour and register — the reds soften, and the world's greatest white wines appear. Part 4 heads down into the Côte de Beaune, where Meursault and the Montrachets take over the story.