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Technical sheet

The appellation

Guy de Maupassant had a taste for good wine, and often gave the characters in his novels the finest bottles to drink. In Bel-Ami, for example, “Duroy had found the Corton to his liking, and let his glass be filled every time. A delicious liveliness stole over him, a warm cheerfulness, that mounted from the stomach to the head, flowed through his limbs and penetrated him throughout. He felt himself wrapped in perfect comfort of life and thought, body and soul.”

The name Corton comes from the Latin Curtis Othonis, Otho’s domain. This Roman emperor refused to allow this fine vineyard to be harvested by anyone else. Since then, many sovereigns have been fascinated by Corton. Charlemagne gave his name to the white Grand Cru which appeased his wife by avoiding undignified red wine stains on his long white beard. The Dukes of Burgundy sought out the best plot for their enclosure, honouring the table of the Capetian line from the 11th century, then the Valois line in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The Valois dukes were known as the grand dukes of the west, the princes of the best wines in Christendom. Philippe the Hardy, Jean the Fearless, Philippe the Good and Charles the Bold link Corton to the flamboyant days of the Order of the Golden Fleece. On Charles’s death, Louis XI confiscated the enclosure, which remained as the Clos du Roi (king’s enclosure) until the French Revolution three centuries later.

The royal vineyard, which had been well maintained under the Dukes of Burgundy, declined through lack of care. In 1603 it passed to Burgundy nobles under a cense, a sort of perpetual leasehold close to true ownership. Over the next fifty years 30 ouvrées, (a little over 1 hectare, an ouvrée being an old land measure representing the amount of vines harvested by one worker in a single day), were uprooted and de-stoned, then replanted with good vines. Under the Revolution, the Clos du Roi was divided into seven lots of fifteen ouvrées, and auctioned off for an exorbitant price, one and a half times that of the neighbouring Corton-Charlemagne. The Clos du Roi was almost completely renewed during the first half of the 19th century. In 1931 a decree granted the right to use the Corton name for the entire Clos du Roi climat, and in 1936 it was declared a Grand Cru under the Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée system.

The vine

Corton Clos du Roi
Surface: 0.497 ha
Geographical situation: parcel on steepish slope.
Exposure: East
Plantings: 1951/1952

Grape variety: 100% Pinot Noir

Soil and subsoil: red, clayey, rich in iron. Pebbly, slightly calcareous.

Planting density: 10 000 vines/ha

Rootstock: massal selection only.

Organic agriculture. Received official approval Ecocert® in 1999.

Pruning: Guyot

Vineyard news: Ullage planted out in autumn. Earthing-up of the vines in winter. Spraying of nettle and rhubarb, horsetail, yarrow, tansy, comfrey tea during each treatment. Biodynamic preparations 500 and 501 at the end of the winter and of 501 in spring before the flower. Suckers removed in spring.

The wine

Harvest date: August 19th 2020. (fruit day)
Hand-sorted in the vineyard and on arrival in the winery.
Yield: 22.5 hl/ha

100% of whole grapes, not crushed and vatted by gravity.
No yeast addition.
Maceration: pre-fermentation, cold (12-15°C) for 5 days.
Length of maceration: 21 days.
Light pumping-over until the end of vatting time.
Pressing with the vertical press.

Length: 16 months
Type: in oak barrels.
Percentage of new barrels: 35 %
Toasting: long and slow.
Source of wood: Tronçais, Cîteaux
All barrels racked.
Light and soft filtration. No fining.

February 11th ,2022 (root day)
Limited to 1444 bottles.

Family Domaine at the heart of Burgundy

Contact us

7bis, rue de l’Eglise
21700 Premeaux Prissey
France

Phone:
+33(0)3 80 62 48 25
Fax:
+33(0)3 80 61 25 44
vougeraie@domainedelavougeraie.com

Taste & buy our wines
private customers

Are you passing through Burgundy?
Find our wines at La Maison Vougeot :
1, rue du vieux château
21640 - Vougeot
Burgundy - France
+33 3 80 61 06 10
+33 6 83 79 44 49
contact@lamaisonvougeot.com


(Visits exclusively for the trade by appointment.)