Between the Clos de la Roche and the Combe de Morey
The Clos Saint-Denis occupies the northern half of the Morey-Saint-Denis slope, immediately south of the Clos de la Roche. Its southern limit is drawn by the corridor at the outlet of the combe de Morey, the dry valley that cuts the commune's lands in their middle and separates the two northern clos (la Roche, Saint-Denis) from the two southern ones (les Lambrays, Tart).
It faces due east, between roughly 285 and 320 metres in altitude, on a gradient that steepens from 5% at the bottom to more than 20% at the top. It therefore lies a little higher and appreciably steeper than its immediate neighbour the Clos de la Roche — a difference of a few dozen metres that is enough to change the nature of the soil and the temperament of the wine.
One Clos, Three Added Lieux-Dits
Like all the grands crus of Morey, the Clos Saint-Denis is a merger of lieux-dits. The historic clos proper measures only 2.15 ha; when it was approved in December 1936 the neighbouring climats that have remained associated with it were added to it: a 1.34 ha portion of Les Chaffots, Calouère (1.30 ha) and Maison Brûlée (1.82 ha). The appellation thus roughly tripled the area of the original clos.
The name "clos" is misleading here: the lieu-dit is thought never to have been ringed by low walls, the term at that time designating in Burgundy a landholding rather than a stone enclosure — unlike the Clos de Tart and the Clos des Lambrays, which are genuinely walled. Les Chaffots, for their part, are divided: part in premier cru, 1.34 ha in Clos Saint-Denis and only 0.07 ha in Clos de la Roche.
The Terroir: Crinoidal Limestone and White Oolith
Like the whole garland of grands crus of the Côte de Nuits, the Clos Saint-Denis rests on the Bajocian crinoidal limestone, a Middle Jurassic rock 35 to 40 metres thick which occupies without interruption the 275-310 metre band of the slope. In the north of the commune's lands this limestone is associated with the Bathonian white oolith, a formation of very friable white limestones, sensitive to freeze-thaw, made of millimetre-sized spherical grains. It almost never outcrops — it was observed locally at the Clos Saint-Denis when a wall was being rebuilt.
Where the cryoclastic scree thins out, the Comblanchien limestones, very pure and very hard, come back to the surface in the western part of the sector. The soils themselves are brown limestone soils, free of rolled gravels in the lower parts. The gradient, steeper than at the neighbour to the north, washes the soils more and limits the water reserve: the Clos Saint-Denis gives less massive wines, tauter and more elegant — a difference of terroir that reads directly in the glass.
Climate and Exposure
The climate is temperate with a slight continental tendency, as along the whole slope of the Côte. The due east orientation brings the morning sun, a decisive asset for a pinot noir of the first ripening period, fragile in the face of downy mildew as of grey rot: the rows dry early and disease pressure falls.
The Clos Saint-Denis lies just north of the outlet of the combe de Morey. That corridor channels currents of cool air from the west which freshen the nights and moderate the end of ripening. Combined with a steep gradient and a slightly higher altitude, this influence explains the aromatic freshness characteristic of the cru.
The Style of the Wines and Their Ageing
Clos-saint-denis is the most perfumed of the grands crus of Morey. The robe is dark ruby; the nose mixes blackcurrant and blackberry with violet, prune and notes of coffee that come with ageing. The palate is harmonious, balanced, structured without heaviness: this is a wine of lace and of length, closer to the register of Chambolle-Musigny than to the power of Gevrey.
Danguy and Aubertin, in 1891, took up a judgement already formulated by Denis Morelot around 1830: "The wine of the Clos Saint-Denis is not quite as fine as those of the Clos de la Roche and the Clos de Tart, though it is nonetheless among the most distinguished in quality." The nineteenth century therefore ranked it slightly behind; the twentieth rehabilitated it. It is served between 12 and 14°C when young, 15 to 17°C when mature, with feathered game, glazed poultry, braised veal or washed-rind cheeses. Allow ten to fifteen years of ageing, some twenty in the great years.
The Canons of Vergy and the Name of the Village
The clos belonged mainly to the chapter of canons of Saint-Denis, established from 1023 on the mont de Vergy, on the plateaus of the Hautes-Côtes, some ten kilometres from Morey. The vine is thought to have been planted there between 1023 and 1240; Jean-François Bazin places the first mention of the clos in the archives in 1367. After the destruction of their buildings during the Wars of Religion, the canons withdrew to Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1610, where they remained until the Revolution.
In 1927 the commune of Morey — formerly Morey-en-Montagne — added to its name that of one of its crus and became Morey-Saint-Denis, following Gevrey (the first in 1847, at the end of a long dispute with Morey over the Chambertin) and Chambolle (1878). The choice is surprising: in the reference classification of Jules Lavalle (1855), the Clos Saint-Denis was only "deuxième cuvée", whereas the Clos de Tart was "tête de cuvée". But Tart and Lambrays were monopoles, with names ill-suited to being tacked on, and the context of the 1920s favoured a religious reference. In the survey published by Monocépage, the principal holders were Georges Lignier (1.49 ha), Dujac (1.47 ha), Bertagna (0.51 ha) and de Chézeaux/Ponsot (0.38 ha), a dozen others sharing smaller areas.