Romanée-Saint-Vivant

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Accessory grape varieties

Terroir

• The vineyard is located in the "Côte de Nuits", a rectilinear ridge of tectonic origin extending approximately 25 kilometres in a general north–south direction.
• The slope, with a drop of approximately 150 metres, is composed of a sequence of Middle Jurassic limestones, including the particularly compact "calcaire de Comblanchien", which forms the structural backbone of the ridge.
• A layer of Bajocian marls is intercalated within the limestone sequence at the lower part of the slope, creating a slight topographic bench.
• The bedrock consists mainly of hard limestones — the Bajocian "calcaires à entroques" — while in the eastern part near the village a conglomeratic formation of limestone blocks and pebbles embedded in a salmon-pink marl matrix is found.
• The soils are weakly developed, generally calcareous and thin, characterised by a high clay content, and a strong presence of iron oxides gives them a distinctive red colour.
• The delimited parcels for harvest are located at the foot of the ridge, on a slight bench overlooking the village, at elevations between 247 and 260 metres.
• The temperate oceanic climate is modulated by continental or southerly influences — the latter channelled northward through the Rhône corridor — with approximately 750 millimetres of rainfall per year and a mean annual temperature of 10.5°C.

• The Cluniac monastery of Saint-Vivant, founded around the year 900, held a viticultural estate at Vosne — with a harvest house and cellars — received from Hugues II, Duke of Burgundy.
• A text of 1765 cites for the first time the name "Romanée de Saint-Vivant", which brought together the former Cloux des neuf journaux, des quatre journaux, and du Moytant.
• In 1816, André Jullien ranked Romanée-Saint-Vivant in the first class, a judgement confirmed by Jules Lavalle in 1855, who placed it at the head of the first-class cuvées.
• The appellation d'origine contrôlée Romanée-Saint-Vivant, reserved for red wines only and with a grape-variety composition dominated by Pinot noir, was recognised in 1936.
• The vines are planted at a high density, exceeding 9,000 plants per hectare in accordance with the customs of the Côte de Nuits, and the wines undergo extended ageing.

• The wines are described as solid and full-bodied, expressing both power and charm with consistently great harmony.
• The intense aromas can evoke red and black fruits — ripe or candied — musk, leather, or humus, with very great aromatic persistence.
• The ageing potential extends to several decades, often beneficial to their full development, while Wikipedia suggests a cellaring window of 15 to 25 years.

• The natural environment is fertile but not excessively so, thanks to well-structured clays rich in iron oxides, and an optimal water balance results from the combination of a surface layer that retains moisture and a limestone subsoil that ensures effective drainage.

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