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Technical sheet

The appellation

At the start of Michel de Saint-Pierre’s novel The Aristocrats, set in Burgundy, the incorrigible twins Osmond and Louis-César get their hands on a bottle of Bonnes Mares 1937 forgotten in the cellars of the family château. Secretly, greedily, they drink the “subtle, fiery” liquid straight from the bottle. Drunk in this way, or more conventionally, this Grand Cru always leads to unforgettable memories!

The name of Bonnes Mares remains a puzzle. Is it a reminder of mother goddesses? An antique bas-relief illustrating this divine threesome, protecting motherhood, life and earthly fruit, was purportedly discovered on the site but is now lost. The idea sounds implausible, no better than the suggestion that it is a corruption of “bonnes mères”, good mothers. What is certain is that the vineyard was created by the Bernardine Sisters of Notre-Dame de Tart (between Dijon and Saint-Jean-de-Losne), the main female branch of the order, closely linked with Cîteaux. Founded in 1125, this abbey planted several vineyards in the 1140s, in particular the Clos de Tart and Bonnes Mares at Morey-Saint-Denis. The congregation moved to Dijon in 1623, but retained its vines until the Revolution in 1789.

It seems more likely that the name comes from the old French and Burgundian word marer (to cultivate). The Bonnes Mares, then, are well maintained vines, lovingly cared for. They are certainly worth the effort!

Les Bonnes Mares has never been a monopole enclosure, simply a jointly-held climat. Until the Revolution, the owners were mostly religious communities, noble and bourgeois families who left their mark on history, many of which have streets named after them in Dijon.

The vine

Surface : 0.7002 ha
Geographical situation: a unique micro-climate as the parcel is partly sheltered by rock from the old quarry.
Exposure: East
Plantings: from 1901 to 1998

Grape variety: 100% Pinot Noir

Soil and subsoil: pure silt with a very low rough sand equivalent. Fairly pebbly, very calcareous.

Planting density: 10 000 vines/ha

Rootstock: 50% of massal selection and 50 % of clones.

Organic agriculture: since 1998.
Official approval Ecocert®: 1999.
Biodynamic agriculture: 2001

Pruning: Guyot

Vineyard news: Ullage planted out. 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: September 4th, 2018 (root day).
Healthy crop. Sorting in the vineyard and in the winery
Yield: 38.5 hl/ha

73% of whole bunches, not crushed and vatted by gravity.
No yeast addition.
Maceration: pre-fermentation, cold (12-15° C) during 5 days.
Maceration: 19 days.
Light pumping-over until the end of maceration.

Length: 18 months in oak-barrels.
New barrels: 27 %
Origin of wood: Tronçais, Cîteaux.
Light and soft filtration. No fining.

February 10th 12th and 13th , 2020 (fruit and foot days)
Limited to 943 bottles, 201 magnums and 16 jeroboams.

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.)