Morey-Saint-Denis is located in a section of the the Côte d’Ore called the Côte de Nuits. Within the commune, there are 20 Premier Crus and 5 Grand Crus. You can think of these as ratings that the land has been given for the quality of wine that it produces. At the top you have Grand, followed by Premier, then Village, and finally AOC Bourgogne or subregional appellations (for areas larger than a village and with less strict rules over quality). The appellation was created in 1936. Prior to the creation of Morey-Saint-Denis, wines from the region were sold under the names of it’s neighbors, Gevery-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny. There is a tradition of appending the name of the most prized vineyard within the appellation (Clos Saint Denis in this case), but Clos Saint Denis is not the most prized vineyard. That honor would go to Clos de la Roche. This is a topic of debate to this day. There are roughly 140 hectares of land in Morey-Saint-Denis
The Grand Crus are Bonnes Mares, Clos de Tart, Clos de la Roche, Clos Saint-Denis, and Clos des Lambrays. Of these Grand Crus, Clos de Tart is the only Monopole, meaning that there is only one producer who makes wine from this vineyard. The negociant Mommessin owns this 7.5 hectare vineyard. Bonnes Mares has a unique situation in that it is split between Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny. This is a bit tough to imagine, so take a look at the map below. On the map, you will see at the top of it the Grand Crus. Note that the Grand Crus generally are to the West in Burgundy as that land has the best sun exposure as it climbs up the hill. As you go down the hill and find yourself on more flat terrain, you end up in the Village vineyards. On the map , you see that within Clos de la Roche, there are several other areas within there with different names. These are other vineyards that were added to the initial AOC of Clos de la Roche. Initially just four and a half hectares, Clos de la Roche now sits at seventeen hectares.
One of the pleasures of drinking Morey-Saint-Denis is that the quality is very high, but it does not command the same price as Gevrey-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny. I’ve had the opportunity to drink three of the five Grand Crus on multiple occasions and find them quite majestic. I won’t provide tasting notes as I don’t find them particularly useful, but I would say that they continually amaze. You can actually purchase new releases from Clos de Tart directly from the winery through their mailing list. VinConnect has will let you sign up for their mailing list along with those of a few others wineries. If you’re interested, it is a relatively affordable way to get access to that monopole.
There is also a cute story about why the wolf is the symbol of Morey-Saint-Denis, but this post is long enough already, so you can take a look at that story on Burgundy Report.
Grand Crus:
- Bonnes Mares
- Clos de Tart
- Clos des Lambrays
- Clos Saint Denis
- Clos de la Roche
Premier Crus:
- Les Genavrières
- Monts Luisants
- Les Chaffots
- Clos Baulet
- Les Blanchards
- Les Gruenchers
- La Riotte, Les Millandes
- Les Faconnières
- Les Charrières
- Clos des Ormes
- Aux Charmes
- Aux Cheseaux
- Les Chenevery
- Le Village
- Les Sorbés
- Clos Sorbé
- La Bussière
- Les Ruchots
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