How many owners share Clos de Vougeot?

How did we get here

For six and a half centuries, a single owner: the Abbey of Cîteaux, which established the clos around 1109–1115. On February 13, 1790, the abbey and its 13,000 hectares were confiscated as national property, and the clos entered the sales circuit. Ouvrard bought it in 1818, Bocquet took over the château and fifteen hectares in 1889. In 1920, Étienne Camuzet, a winemaker and deputy of the Côte-d’Or, bought the château and then sold these fifteen hectares to fifteen different owners. From then on, inheritances and resales did the rest. The full timeline is on the history of the clos.

What this means in the glass

Many. Under a single appellation label, you have over eighty ways of doing things: yields, harvest, aging, proportion of new oak. Add geography: the upper part of the clos, on a slope near the château, is considered the best terroir; the lower part, flatter and more clayey, is less consistent. Two bottles from the same vintage can therefore be very different without either being flawed. Buying a Clos de Vougeot is first and foremost about choosing an estate: see the grand cru in detail.

Walking through the plots

The 2 h 30 guided walk from Beaune includes forty-five minutes of walking between Romanée-Conti, Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot, Bonnes Mares, and Chambertin, a cellar visit, and a comparative tasting of six wines.

Frequently asked questions