Why Are There "About 80" Different Producers Inside a Single Walled Vineyard? — Burgundy, Through One Map

In a village in the Côte de Nuits, one encounters a single stone wall that encircles an entire vineyard. Its name is Clos de Vougeot. Its area is about 50 hectares. Seen from outside the wall, whether on a map or on the ground, it looks like a single vineyard.

But gather together the labels of the wines made from grapes grown inside this wall, and the names of the producers written on them are not one. Dozens of different wines all carry the same name, “Clos de Vougeot.” How many producers are there inside the wall? Count them, and the answer is about 80. The roughly 50 hectares of vineyard are divided among about 80 producers, each responsible for their own parcel. One wall, one vineyard, about 80 producers — why does this happen? The answer comes down to a single point: in Bordeaux and in Burgundy, the word “classification” does not point to the same thing.

Bordeaux Classified the Producer

In 1855, ahead of the Paris World’s Fair, Bordeaux’s brokers drew up a classification. Their standard was the trading price and reputation of the time. What they lined up were “châteaux” — the very producers who made the wine. From beginning to end, the subject of the classification was the producer.

Burgundy Classified the Land

Burgundy’s classification is attached to something different. Its four-tier pyramid — Regional, Village, Premier Cru, Grand Cru — is assigned not to a producer, but to each individually delimited vineyard parcel, called a climat. The name of a Grand Cru is the name of that climat itself. So even when a parcel’s owner changes, the rank stays with the land. This system, the AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée), began operating in 1936.

About 80 People Inside the Wall

Clos de Vougeot is one of these climats. As long as the grapes are grown inside this wall, the wine may carry the name “Clos de Vougeot,” no matter which of the roughly 50 hectares of parcels they came from. About 80 people each tend their own small parcel while making wine under this same single vineyard name — and that clearly shows that the subject of the classification is the land, not the person.

There Are Still Stories on the Map Yet to Be Told

This stretch of land running from the Côte de Nuits to the Côte de Beaune, together with the 1,247 climats counted at the time, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 4, 2015. But the map does not end there. From Romanée-Conti to Chablis — on a single map, there are as many stories as there are vineyards. Below are the 12 stories that have walked across that map.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• Clos de Vougeot is a roughly 50-hectare vineyard enclosed by a single wall. Inside it are about 80 producers, and dozens of different wines all carry the same vineyard’s name.
• Bordeaux’s 1855 classification was a list of “châteaux” — producers. Burgundy’s classification is attached to “climats” — vineyard parcels. The subject of the classification is different.
• So even when a vineyard’s owner changes, its rank stays with the land. This is why the name that takes center stage on a Burgundy label is so often not a person’s name, but a vineyard’s.

In this series

→ Bordeaux Chateau Stories, “One Table” (the 1855 Classification and the Five First Growths, now live)

This article is the opening chapter (Episode 0) of the series “Burgundy, Through One Map.” The 12 stories of individual vineyards and producers are all published and indexed below.

Explore All 12 Stories

Chapter 1 — The Vosne-Romanée Trilogy

01Romanée-Conti02Henri Jayer03Maison Leroy

Chapter 2 — Legends of the Côte de Nuits

04Clos de Vougeot05Chambertin06Méo-Camuzet

Chapter 3 — White Wine Legends of the Côte de Beaune

07Montrachet08Corton-Charlemagne09Hospices de Beaune

Chapter 4 — To the Edge of the Map

10Chablis11Meursault12Bouzeron