The Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune are of different ages The Côte (from Dijon to Santenay) dominates the Bressan plain at a height of 150 to 200 metres; a fault line between the limestone plateaux (Hautes-Côtes) and the trough. Anticlinal undulation known as "of Gevrey" raises the Mid-Jurassic, revealing the Upper Jurassic. Synclinal undulation known as "of Volnay" lowers the Upper Jurassic to the Bressan level. Callovian, Oxfordian, Portlandian: these geological strata contribute to bases that vary according to their proportion of limestone or clay. The geological outcrops due to this fault line make it possible to understand the complexity of the terroir, the individual personality of each wine. In the Côtes de Nuits and de Beaune, rendzinas and brown limestone soils predominate, generally with a covering of scree. There is a mixture of gravel (broken up by frost) and red silt that has slipped down slopes onto marly bases or limestones. The majority of the Grands Crus come from the middle of the slope. The arable land often only occupies a shallow layer, in close contact with the source rock, but the roots of the vine can thread through the slightest crack and sometimes reach down some dozens of metres.  The Côte de Nuits is older (Mid-Jurassic, 175 million years ago) than the Côte de Beaune (Upper Jurassic, 150 million years ago). Facing the rising sun, the Côte de Nuits follows a rectilinear axis while the vine plays leapfrog over narrow rocky steep-sided coombes. The Côte de Beaune seems to follow the sun’s daily course and slants gradually towards the South. Its coombes are gentler and the vine can be grown on their slopes. The Comblanchian limestone that plunged down at Ladoix reappears at Meursault. The Pinot Noir is most at home on the limestone soil of gentle slopes well-drained by gravel: the excellence of the red Grands Crus, profound and subtle, whose body, bouquet and colour are in perfect harmony. These wines have great laying-down potential, derived as they are from such solid and lasting foundations. The more water-retentive alluvial clays at the foot of the slopes also yield powerful wines but with marginally less elegance. The Chardonnay also flourishes on limestone slopes, preferring marly and sometimes very clayey formations: the Kimmeridgian marls of Chablis, the Oxfordian limestones of Corton-Charlemagne or the southern part of the Côte de Beaune. Here the grape develops perfect grace: the gold of alchemy, tinged with emerald; the subtle bouquet, a taste unique in the world. As Pierre Poupon remarks: from the same grape, Chardonnay, Burgundy draws as many variations as the bow on a violin, from Chablis to Pouilly-Fuissé! Each is the product of its terroir, the good fortune of the year and the composers - the wine grower and wine maker. Nature provides some excellent geological cross sections, the Montagne de Corton for example or the rock of Solutré in Mâconnais. In the Hautes-CôtesMontagne de Corton, is aptly named. A section through the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, from the top down, exposes hard limestones, clays, pebbly limestone (on the flanks), and at the foot of the slope, limestone pavement and gravel. Average altitude: 300-400 metres. There is more air movement between hills and valleys and the climate is somewhat harsher.While the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits occupies a plateau clearly defined by the edge of the Côte and the valley of the Ouche, the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune extends further into the country behind the Côte proper. In the Hautes-Côtes, Rauracian limestones break the surface. Limestone soils alternate with marls, with the appearance of the oldest Jurassic beds, (between Mavilly-Mandelot and La Rochepot for example). This no doubt belongs to the same formation. These wines belong to the same family. The landscape is of hills and valleys, “leaping and gambolling” as Montaigne put it, making for interesting diversity from village to village. Full of fire, energy and lightness, "almost all spirit” as they used to say in the 18th century, the red wines of the Hautes-Côtes are fruity and, without being too robust, smooth on the palate. The Aligoté-based whites may sometimes have a little too much bite, but those from the Chardonnay have all the mellowness that could be desired. |  |
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