A Pocket Handkerchief Between Four Grands Crus
Griotte-Chambertin occupies a single small lieu-dit, "En Griotte", in the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin, in the Côte-d'Or. It belongs to the series of grands crus lying below the route des Grands Crus (D 122), together with the Chapelle, the Charmes and the Mazoyères. Its position is remarkable: it faces, on the other side of the track, the junction of Chambertin-Clos de Bèze and Chambertin. On its three other sides it is bordered to the north by Chapelle-Chambertin, to the south by Charmes-Chambertin and to the east by a simple path separating it from the village Gevrey-Chambertin vines of the lieu-dit "En Etelois", towards the old route nationale 74.
The size of the cru is striking. The 1828 cadastral survey already mentions "En Griotte"; Jules Lavalle classified 2 hectares 90 ares as première cuvée in 1855 — spelling it "Grillotte" — and the 1936 classification retained 2 hectares 69 ares and 18 centiares. It is the smallest grand cru of Gevrey, to be compared with the fifteen or so hectares of the Clos de Bèze; on the Burgundian scale, only Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet, Romanée-Conti and La Romanée are smaller. Production runs at around ten thousand bottles a year, which makes griotte one of the rarest grands crus of the Côte de Nuits.
The Terroir: Ten to Thirty Centimetres of Soil on the Rock
Here "the Côte" forms a simple relief, a well-marked slope facing the rising sun. The plots lie at the piedmont, at the heart of a small amphitheatre cutting into the edge of a terrace formed by a bed of hard Bajocian limestone (Middle Jurassic), the "crinoidal limestone" — the rock built from the debris of fossil crinoids. The limestone substrate is masked only by a thin layer, from a few decimetres to a metre, of spreads mixing abundant and sometimes coarse scree with red clays and silts derived from the weathering of the subsoil and of the relief above. On the ground, observation is sharper still: only ten to thirty centimetres of brown earth over a rocky base, the maximum thickness being at the foot of the slope, with a soil full of small white limestone pebbles and fossils.
The soils are therefore weakly developed, generally carbonated, thin and free-draining despite their high clay content. Several small springs cross the climat: after a heavy storm, run-off from the slope above can leave water here, but drainage — natural, and completed by a conduit crossing the plot — carries it away quickly. It is these conditions — rocky base, limestone gravel and efficient drainage — that are usually invoked to explain the elegance of the cru and its acidity, slightly lower than that of the neighbouring grands crus.
Climate, Exposure and Production Rules
The climate is that of the Côte de Nuits: cool oceanic, tempered by continental or southern influences channelled by the Rhône-Saône axis. Rainfall is moderate and regular — about 750 millimetres a year — with no marked summer drought, for an average annual temperature of 10.5°C. East of the Morvan and the Burgundian plateaus, the Côte enjoys a climatic shelter that gives it a thermal advantage and a notable rainfall deficit. Griotte adds a topographical asset of its own: its natural amphitheatre concentrates the sun, and the gentle slope falls away clearly towards the east.
The rules are those of the grands crus of Gevrey: a minimum density of 9,000 vines per hectare, an average maximum load of 8,000 kilos per hectare, irrigation forbidden. The grapes are considered properly ripe only from 198 grams of sugar per litre of must, for a minimum natural alcoholic strength of 11.5%; after enrichment, the wines do not exceed 14.5%. The base yield is 45 hl/ha and the ceiling 53 hl/ha, against 35 hl/ha in the original decree. The use of wood chips is forbidden, ageing runs at least until 15 June of the year following the harvest and release comes from 30 June. Naming the grape variety on the label is forbidden; the appellation name may be followed by the words "grand cru".
The Style of the Wines and Their Ageing
A bright robe, dark ruby. The nose unfolds red fruits — raspberry, blackcurrant, redcurrant, sometimes a note of tart cherry that has done much for the legend of the name — then liquorice, spice, rose and violet, and undergrowth with age. The palate is powerful, opulent and complex, but it is above all elegance that recurs in descriptions of the cru: a fine line, an acidity a little lower than that of the surrounding grands crus, an early melting of the tannins. Griotte is readily said to be "easy to approach in its youth" — which is not the same thing as "to be drunk quickly".
Cellaring runs from ten to twenty years, longer in great vintages, and bottles of fifteen years and more keep a fine liveliness. Serve between 13 and 16°C. At the table, the register is that of the grands crus of Gevrey: game grilled or in a wine sauce, lamb in sauce, coq au vin, rib of beef, washed-rind cheeses. The consistency of the climat from one vintage to the next is one of its most commented-on traits: the shape stays recognisable, only the character changes from one producer to another.
Griotte or Criot? The Riddle of the Name
The name irresistibly evokes the morello cherry, and as chance would have it the wine sometimes develops aromas of tart cherry — enough to keep the confusion alive. But the sources now agree on another origin: the appellation's cahier des charges states that the place name derives from a Burgundian term, "cras" or "criot", usually denoting places with very stony soils — which is precisely what this lieu-dit is, its relatively steep slope going with a great deal of stone. The geologist Jacques Fanet speaks of "crais" soils, which have nothing to do with chalk but denote stony soils on crinoidal limestone, of the kind found across part of the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin.
The family of words is wide — crais, crai, crays, cras, and the diminutive criottes — and Henri Jayer, among others, defended this reading through the soil rather than through the fruit. One variant circulates that would link the name to the small hollow the climat forms: it describes the cru's amphitheatre topography well, but it is not the explanation retained by the cahier des charges, which sticks to the stony soil. Another toponymic curiosity: local maps still often use the spelling "En Grillotte" inherited from Lavalle, and in the 1960s two houses marketed a "Clos de la Griotte-Chambertin" of which no visible clos survives today.
A Short History and a Handful of Owners
Like its neighbours, the climat owes its modern fame to its closeness to Chambertin: its reputation seems to have been established by the eighteenth century, the wines selling dearly and often being linked to their great neighbour. Jules Lavalle classified it as première cuvée in 1855. In the early twentieth century, wines from the Griotte were commonly sold under the name "Griotte-Chambertin": the 1931 ruling of the Dijon court recognised this usage as an appellation of origin and fixed its geographical limits. The AOC was recognised by the decree of 31 July 1937 and the delimited area revised by the INAO at its session of 17 and 18 May 1984.
On so small a surface, ownership is necessarily tight. According to the survey published by Burgundy-Report, the Domaine des Chézeaux, belonging to the Mercier family, held by far the largest share — of the order of a hectare and a half, more than half the cru — and lets out part of its vines under métayage; this is the source of the cuvées bottled by Domaine Ponsot and by Domaine René Leclerc. Other owner-growers include the house of Joseph Drouhin, Domaine Fourrier, Claude Dugat, Claude Marchand, Joseph Roty and Domaine Duroché, whose parcel is measured in a few ares. The house of Louis Jadot, without owning vines, also bottles some. A dozen names, two or three barrels for some of them: that is why griotte-chambertin is so rarely met with.