Clos Vougeot: one of Burgundy’s grands crus with 1,000 years of history
It may not have the clout of the top grand cru names, but when Clos Vougeot is good, it’s very good... and definitely worth exploring
There are just 32 grands crus in Burgundy. Sounds reasonable, right?
Until, that is, you realise that between just two grands crus alone – Echezeaux and Clos Vougeot – the vineyard land is split among 166 different owners. Some might only make one or two barrels each year, others might sell their grapes or sublet their vines rather than bottle themselves, but that still means a startlingly large number of names to sort through on shelves or restaurant wine lists.
Echezeaux takes the prize in Burgundy for the most pixelated grand cru. It is 91 acres and has 84 different owners. But Clos Vougeot isn’t far behind with 82 owners covering a slightly larger 51 hectares. Strangely, the two are right next to each other, even sharing a wall at one point.
The sheer number of owners creates, as you might expect, a range of different quality and styles in the wines – not just from differences in soils, but in age of vines, choices made in the vineyard and cellar and a host of other tiny but never insignificant decisions.
Echezeaux tends to take the prize in terms of perception of quality, probably because Domaine de la Romanée Conti has a 4.6-hectare slice. But it’s Clos Vougeot that has the greatest hold on the public imagination. Owned by Cistercian monks from the 11th to 19th centuries and with its 16th century chateau now the site of Burgundy’s hottest annual party (thrown by the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin), it has become perhaps the best known of all Burgundy names – if the least understood.
“Clos Vougeot is a historic grand cru, emblematic of Burgundy,” Louis-Michel Liger-Belair told me a few weeks ago when we spoke about his reasons for renting a small 7,000 square metre plot within Clos Vougeot. His first vintage will be 2015, although his family was one of only five owners who bought the clos back in 1889, before selling up about 1930. He also has cousins who own other plots, and has made wine for years from nearby slopes that overlook the famous 500-year-old walls.