Why Do About 80 People Now Share a Vineyard That One Abbey Walled In? — Clos de Vougeot

In a corner of the village of Vougeot, in the Côte de Nuits, a stone wall encircles a single vineyard. Its name is Clos de Vougeot. Its area is about 50 hectares, and the wall that surrounds it runs for about 3.3 kilometers. This wall was first built by a single abbey. The stones that enclose the vineyard were laid, generation after generation, by the hands of monks. And yet today, inside this wall, there are about 80 producers. A single abbey built this one wall — so why do so many people now hold a parcel of land within it? The answer lies in the history this vineyard passed through after the wall was completed.

The Monks Gathered the Vineyard and Built the Wall

In 1098, the Abbey of Cîteaux was founded by Robert of Molesme and others. The Cistercian monks of this abbey are said to have gradually gathered vineyard plots around the village of Vougeot over the course of the 12th century, through donations from the nobility of Burgundy and through purchases made by the abbey itself. To bring these gathered parcels together as one, the monks enclosed them with a stone wall. The French word “clos” means “enclosed land,” and this is the reason the vineyard came to be called “Clos de Vougeot.” The wall was built in stages from the 12th through the 14th century, and is said to have taken roughly its present form around 1336. The wall that survives today runs for about 3.3 kilometers, and its line still corresponds closely to today’s AOC boundary.

A Place for Winemaking Was Also Built Here

The monks did not stop at enclosing the vineyard; they also built winemaking facilities on this land. Inside the wall, buildings for pressing grapes, making wine, and storing it are said to have been put in place over the course of successive generations. In 1551, Dom Jean Loisier, then abbot of Cîteaux, added a Renaissance-style manor to the site. Both the wall and the buildings speak to the length of time the monks devoted to this land.

The Revolution Changed the Owner, but the Vineyard Was Still One

In 1789, the French Revolution set in motion the confiscation of Church property. The estate of the Abbey of Cîteaux, including Clos de Vougeot, was not spared. In February 1790, the abbey and its vast estate were confiscated and declared national property. The vineyard is then said to have been put up for auction as a single lot. At this point, the vineyard still belonged to a single owner — it would be some time yet before the land inside the wall was first divided among multiple hands.

Inheritance and Sale Divided One Vineyard Among About 80

Even after the Revolution, ownership of the vineyard changed hands several times, but from the close of the 19th century into the 20th, each round of inheritance and sale gradually divided what had once been a single vineyard among an increasing number of owners. The château, too, fell into disrepair by the late 19th century before being restored by a private owner, and it continued to pass through individual hands into the 20th century. But the fragmentation of the vineyard itself did not stop there, and today about 80 people each hold their own parcel within this one wall. The wall remains one, and the name of the vineyard remains one, even as the number of owners kept growing — the wall the monks built still holds all of them within the same boundary.

Today, the Château Is the Seat of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin

Apart from the vineyard itself, the château had one more turning point in its history. In 1944, the château came into the ownership of an association called the “Friends of the Château du Clos de Vougeot,” which granted a long-term right of use to an organization founded in 1934 to safeguard the reputation of the wines of Burgundy, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. The château has been its seat ever since. The vineyard enclosed by the wall came to be divided among about 80 hands, while the château that once watched over it became the seat of a single organization — different as their paths were, both are things built on this land that are still in use today.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• The French word “clos” means “land enclosed by a wall.” The wall around Clos de Vougeot was built by Cistercian monks between the 12th and 14th centuries and runs for about 3.3 kilometers. Its line still corresponds closely to today’s AOC boundary.
• When the French Revolution confiscated the property of the Abbey of Cîteaux, the vineyard still belonged to a single owner. It was the accumulation of inheritances and sales from the close of the 19th century into the 20th that divided the vineyard among multiple owners; today, about 80 people each hold a parcel within this one wall.
• In 1944, the château came under the ownership of the “Friends of the Château du Clos de Vougeot” and became the seat of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, an organization founded in 1934. The vineyard within the wall came to be divided among about 80 owners, while the château that watched over it continues today as the seat of a single organization.

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