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BEAUNE PREMIER CRU
2020

Technical sheet

The appellation

If any town can claim to be born under the auspices of a guiding star, Beaune can. The star, seen on numerous paintings or embroideries at the Hôtel-Dieu, is the love between its two founders, Nicolas Rolin and his wife Guigone de Salins. Encircled by its ramparts and bastions like a cask by its staves, Beaune is a flamboyant gothic representation of a love story between Burgundy and Flanders, in the days of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

The kings of France always served Beaune wines at their tables, taken from their own cellars. They were broad-minded, as there are Clos du Roi (King’s Enclosures) as far afield as Chenôve and Aloxe-Corton. These prestigious enclosures generally came from land confiscated from the Dukes of Burgundy when the province was reunited with France after the death of Charles the Reckless.

The Clos du Roi at Beaune is often mentioned in royal decrees and edicts. For example, the decree of June 21st, 1723 which ordered “the sale and adjudication of the Clos du Roi in Beaune as a covenant and with a perpetual redemption option”. This monopole (single owner) vineyard was cultivated and vinified by the people of Beaune, who delivered casks and baskets of bottles to Court at Versailles.

No Burgundy wine has bluer blood. Louis XIV reportedly came into this world after his mother, Queen Anne of Austria, who had been sterile for twenty-three years, consulted a Beaune nun, Marguerite Parigot (1619-1648). After this miracle, the Church declared Sister Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament to be Venerable. The Sun King appreciated Beaune wine, and made several pilgrimages to the town.

Whereas cras, chaille or cailleret in Burgundy refer to pebbly soil, gravains, gravières and grèves (from the Latin word grava, gravel) mean a more sandy soil, ideal for wine growing.

Vines have been planted here since Gallo-Roman days. The town’s vines are mentioned in the oldest description of Burgundy vineyards, written by Eumenes in 312 A.D. Part of Les Grèves long belonged to the Carmelite order. The cult of the Christ Child at Beaune was started by a Carmelite nun, Marguerite Parigot (1619-1648), whom Anne of Austria reportedly consulted shortly before conceiving Louis XIV after 23 years of sterility.

The vine

Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi (CE0053 + CE0054)
Surface : 0,0979 + 0,0165 ha = 0,1144 ha
Geographical situation: parcel in mid-slope
Plantings: 1978/1979

Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi (CE0068)
Surface: 0,1439 ha
Geographical situation: parcel in mid-slope
Plantings: 1901/1902 1974/1975

Beaune 1er Cru Les Grèves (CO0066)
Surface: 0,3275 ha
Geographical situation: parcel on steepish slope.
Plantings: 1978/1979

Grape variety: 100% Pinot Noir

Planting density: 10 000 vines/ha

Exposure: East-facing

Training style: Guyot

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

Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi
Soil and subsoil: clayey soil, rich in iron, slightly calcareous. Lots of gravel.
Rootstock: 50 % of massal selection and 50 % of clones.
Organic agriculture. Received official approval ECOCERT in 2000.
Bio-dynamic agriculture since the 2001 campaign.

Beaune 1er Cru Les Grèves
Soil and subsoil: highly calcareous soil. Pure silt.
Rootstock: massal selection only.
Organic agriculture. Received official approval ECOCERT in 2000.
Bio-dynamic agriculture since the 2001 campaign.

The wine

Harvest date : 20th August 2020 (Fruit day)
Selection: hand-sorted in the vineyard and on arrival in the winery.
Yield : 11.5 hl/ha

61% of whole grapes, not crushed and vatted by gravitaty.
No yeast addition. Gravity vated.
Maceration: pre-fermentation, cold  (12-15° C) during 5 days.
Length of maceration: 20 days
Pressing with the vertical press.

Length: 16 months
Type: in oak barrels.
Percentage of new barrels: 33 %
Toasting: long and slow.
Source of wood: Cîteaux et Centre
Light and soft filtration. No fining.

August, 6th December 2021 (fruit day).
Limited to 866 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.)