The Côte de Nuits is the northern half of the Côte d'Or, running from just below Dijon to Nuits-Saint-Georges, and it is the most concentrated patch of expensive vineyard anywhere. A limestone escarpment faces east, catching the morning sun, with the best sites in a narrow band halfway up the slope where the soil is thin and the drainage sharp. Above that it grows too stony and cold, below it too rich and flat.

Pinot Noir dominates almost completely. Fourteen communes share the district, six of them holding grand cru vineyards, and these are the names the wine world argues about: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-Saint-Georges. The grand crus themselves are tiny, some under two hectares, divided among several owners, which is why so little of this wine exists and why so much is written about so few bottles.