Clos de Vougeot ou Clos Vougeot

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Accessory grape varieties

Terroir

• The relief of the Côte de Nuits, of tectonic origin, stretches over approximately 25 kilometres in a general north–south direction between the Hautes Côtes and the Bresse plain.
• The escarpment face at Vougeot, with a drop of approximately 150 metres, is composed of Bajocian and Bathonian limestones of the Middle Jurassic, including the Comblanchien limestone that forms the structural backbone of the relief.
• The Clos de Vougeot is situated in a footslope position at an altitude of between 240 and 265 metres, at the mouth of a steep-sided combe that has formed a small alluvial fan.
• The lower part of the slope rests on a substrate of Bresse marls, while the upper part rests on a shallow slab of Jurassic limestone, with a highly faulted middle section of complex structure.
• The temperate oceanic climate has a moderate and regular rainfall regime of approximately 750 millimetres per year and a mean annual temperature of 10.5°C, with no pronounced summer drought.
• The terroir of the clos is not homogeneous: gravelly and stony in its upper section, it becomes more clayey lower down while retaining free-draining soils that shed rainwater quickly. (via Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0)

• The monks of Cîteaux acquired plots at Vougeot shortly after 1098; the wall of the clos was built a century later, with full control by Cîteaux not complete until the thirteenth century.
• Confiscated during the French Revolution of 1789 and sold at auction, the clos then passed from hand to hand until its division in 1889, after which it has been shared among approximately 80 owners today.
• A winery was built at the heart of the clos, which became the present-day Château du Clos Vougeot, regarded as one of the most celebrated sites of Burgundian viticulture.
• The vines are trained at planting densities exceeding 9,000 vines per hectare, in keeping with the practices prevailing throughout the Côte de Nuits, with a varietal composition based on Pinot noir.

• The wines display a deep red colour, with a bouquet often combining aromas of cherry, blackberry or blackcurrant alongside notes of undergrowth or violet.
• On the palate they are full, fleshy and long, generally showing a fine balance between refined tannins, roundness and restrained acidity; these are wines with ageing potential that evolve favourably over many years.

• The southerly and continental nuance of the oceanic climate, the footslope aspect and the stony soils derived from the erosion of Jurassic limestones endow the site with all the assets needed to produce great wines.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in France

Sources

• Product specification (BO Agri, PDF)
• Official INAO text (show_texte)
• INAO product entry
• Official trade body site — BIVB