In the Heart of the Morey-Saint-Denis Slope
The Clos de la Roche occupies the northern part of the Morey-Saint-Denis lands, between Gevrey-Chambertin and the Clos Saint-Denis. It sits in the middle of the continuous band of grands crus that runs for about 3.3 kilometres, from the Clos de Bèze at Gevrey-Chambertin to Bonnes-Mares at Chambolle-Musigny. Facing due east, it is tiered between roughly 270 and 310 metres in altitude, on a gradient that goes from 7% at the bottom to 15% at the top of the slope.
The commune is cut in the middle by the combe of Morey-Saint-Denis, a dry valley that lets cool air come down from the west. The Clos de la Roche and the Clos Saint-Denis lie north of that notch; the Clos des Lambrays and the Clos de Tart lie south of it. This break explains part of the differences in character between the four adjoining clos.
Eight Lieux-Dits Under a Single Name
At Morey the grands crus are all mergers of lieux-dits, and the Clos de la Roche is the most composite: around the eponymous lieu-dit have gathered Les Chabiots, Les Fremières, Les Mochamps, part of Monts Luisants, part of Les Genavrières, Les Froichots, together with a thin strip of 0.07 ha of Les Chaffots — the rest of the latter being shared between the Clos Saint-Denis and the premier cru. The core delimited in 1936 (Les Fremières, Les Froichots, Les Mochamps, Les Chabiots) was extended in 1971 to Les Genavrières and Les Chaffots.
This aggregation is no administrative detail: it explains the variability of the cru. The historical classifications of the nineteenth century bear witness to it — in the hierarchy of Jules Lavalle (1855), only the lieu-dit Clos de la Roche reached "première cuvée", the other components being placed largely in "deuxième cuvée". Camille Rodier, in 1920, would raise the whole to première cuvée. On the ground, the gap between the stony upper part of Monts Luisants and the more clayey lower part of Les Fremières remains very real.
The Terroir: Crinoidal Limestone, Scree and Large Blocks
The common denominator of the whole garland of grands crus of the Côte de Nuits is the crinoidal limestone, a Lower to Middle Bajocian rock (Middle Jurassic, Dogger) 35 to 40 metres thick, which occupies without interruption the altitude band 275-310 m. In the north of the commune, the Clos de la Roche and the Clos Saint-Denis rest on a pairing of crinoidal limestone and white oolith (Bathonian), while Comblanchien limestones outcrop in the western part of the cru. Faults, very clear on the geological map, create there a veritable marquetry of formations within a few dozen metres.
On this base the earth is thin — some thirty centimetres — and poor in rolled gravels, but scattered with large blocks of stone that gave the climat its name. The northern slope of Morey (Monts Luisants, Clos de la Roche) is moreover loaded with cryoclastic gravels: this freeze-thaw scree, produced by the fragmentation of the Comblanchien limestones, forms "grèzes litées" with a silty-sandy, barely clayey matrix. Immediate drainage, limited water reserve, rapid warming: the vine works here under constraint, which gives the wine its mineral tension. A former quarry of Prémeaux limestone, in Monts Luisants, is a reminder that this stone also served for building.
A Temperate Climate with a Continental Nuance
Morey-Saint-Denis lives under a temperate climate with a slight continental tendency: pronounced winters, hot summers, dreaded spring frosts. The due east exposure of the slope gives the vine the morning sun, which quickly dries the dew and limits fungal pressure on a pinot noir susceptible to downy mildew as well as grey rot.
The combe of Morey acts as a regulator: down this corridor come currents of cool air from the plateaus to the west, which freshen the nights and lengthen ripening. The Clos de la Roche, lying north of its outlet, feels the effect without being directly swept by it — a balance between ripeness and freshness that explains the cru's ability to retain acidity in sun-filled vintages.
The Style of the Wines and Their Ageing
Clos-de-la-roche is the most sturdily built of the grands crus of Morey. The robe is dark ruby; the nose links small red and black fruits to notes of undergrowth and truffle that settle in with age. The palate is deep, assertive, structured — this is a wine of matter and framework, more virile than the neighbouring clos-saint-denis, whose lace and restraint it lacks.
Production runs at around 589 hectolitres, some 78,500 bottles a year, on a base yield of 35 hl/ha. It is served between 12 and 14°C in its youth, 15 to 17°C once mature, with feathered game, glazed poultry, braised veal or roast lamb. Allow ten to fifteen years of ageing, twenty and more in the great vintages — the vintage and the grower's hand weigh here as much as the climat itself.
History, Ranking and Owners
The Clos de la Roche is among the very first appellations d'origine contrôlée of Burgundy: it was promulgated grand cru in December 1936, at the same time as the village appellation Morey-Saint-Denis and the Clos Saint-Denis. The grower Hippolyte Ponsot, a lawyer by training, was among the local architects of the 1935-1936 classification. A second decree, in July 1946, revised the perimeter of the cru at around 15.34 hectares, before the 1971 extension that gave it its present area.
Unlike the Clos de Tart or the Clos des Lambrays, the Clos de la Roche is a divided cru: some thirty owners share the area, of whom about ten hold sizeable parcels. In the survey published by Monocépage, Ponsot held 3.33 ha, Dujac 1.95 ha, Armand Rousseau 1.48 ha, Pierre Amiot 1.20 ha, Coquard-Loison-Fleurot 1.17 ha, Georges Lignier 1.05 ha, Hubert Lignier 1.01 ha, Leroy 0.67 ha, Louis Rémy 0.66 ha and Arlaud 0.43 ha. The growers are very largely from Morey; Armand Rousseau, of Gevrey-Chambertin, is the exception — the Clos de la Roche is the only terroir outside its own commune where the estate has bought vines.