Morey-Saint-Denis Grand Cru

Morey-St Denis is the smallest viticultural village of the Côte de Nuits – Vougeot apart – with under 150 hectares of vines. The commune is very narrow, less than 1.5 kilometres wide from entering Morey from Chambolle on the Route des Grands Crus, to leaving it for Gevrey.

The Grand Crus:

Clos de la Roche (16.9 hectares)
Clos de la Roche wines are quintessentially ‘Morey’ in style, not that easy to define yet clearly very fine wines, with a slight aromatic wildness which differentiates them from a top Chambolle-Musigny, and a tight linear structure which ensures longevity. The aromatics are more subtle but less sumptuous than Clos St Denis.
Leading growers: Domaine Ponsot and Domaine Dujac, Armand Rousseau, Armand Rousseau

Clos St Denis (6.62 hectares)
St Denis (whose name is derived from Dionysus) had his head chopped off by pagan priests, who disliked his conversion rate to Christianity. He apparently still managed to tuck his head under his arm and walk, preaching all the way, to what is now the Paris suburb of St Denis (near to where the Stade de France was built).

It is hard to persuade any of the Seysses family of Domaine Dujac to offer a clear distinction between their Clos de la Roche and Clos St Denis, except perhaps that the former goes into its shell during adolescence more than the latter. I sense a slightly more sumptuous character compared to its twin, but perhaps not as strong a bone structure for the long term.

Clos de Tart (7.53 hectares)
There have only been three owners of Clos de Tart since 1141: the Marey family (later Marey-Monge) bought the property after the nuns were dispossessed in 1791, and kept it until 1932 when it was purchased by the Mommessin family. Though the Mommessins subsequently sold their business in the Beaujolais to Jean-Claude Boisset, they retained ownership of Clos de Tart. The domaine has been regenerated since the appointment of Sylvain Pitiot (co-author of the Nouvel Atlas des Grands Vignobles de Bourgogne) as manager in 1996.

Clos des Lambrays (8.84 hectares)
The Clos is in fact a monopoly of the  Domaine des Lambrays.