The End of the Côte de Beaune, in Saône-et-Loire
The Maranges occupy the northern tip of Saône-et-Loire, just beyond the departmental boundary that separates them from Santenay. The vineyard unfolds in the Dheune valley, upstream of Chagny — the river here separating the Côte de Beaune, on the left bank to the north, from the Côte chalonnaise, on the right bank to the south. Chagny is six kilometres to the east, Beaune seventeen to the north-east. The appellation area, bounded by the Cozanne to the south-west, the Dheune to the south-east, Santenay to the east and the woods of the mont de Sène to the north, forms a compact polygon 2.8 km from east to west by 1.4 km from north to south.
The Maranges slope is the direct continuation of that of Santenay, and like it, it is no longer aligned with the rest of the Côte-d'Or: after running almost straight from Ladoix to Chassagne, the côte bends westwards at Santenay-le-Bas. The exposures follow from this: south-south-east in the eastern part, due south in the centre, slightly south-south-west in the west. The drop reaches 180 metres over only 900 metres of distance, between 404 metres north of la Fussière and 224 metres at the southern end of the Sur le Chêne climat: slopes of more than 20% at the top, gentler (5%) at the foot, and well-drained soils throughout.
The Terroir: A Concentrate of Burgundian Geology
The Dheune valley corresponds to a rift valley running north-east / south-west, inherited from the Carboniferous — it is this structure that allowed the formation of the Blanzy and Le Creusot coal basin. In the Cenozoic, the Alpine orogeny and the collapse of the Bresse rift reactivated that old fracture. The result: as at Santenay, the territory of the Maranges is criss-crossed by countless faults, which cut the rocks into sliding blocks, later smoothed by erosion into a marquetry. For the geologist Françoise Vannier-Petit, the Maranges area is "a concentrate of the whole geology of Burgundy" — while she also points out that "a given subsoil does not necessarily give a given wine, that would be too simple".
The detail is worth the detour, for one goes much further back in time here than in the rest of the Côte. Right at the top, east of Dezize, a brown crinoidal limestone of the Bathonian forms a small cornice. Just below, the upper part of la Fussière lies on limestone scree with chailles covering blue-black Toarcian marls, rich in belemnites. Lower down, the lower part of la Fussière, the Clos des Loyères and the Clos Roussots rest on those marls and on the grey-blue Pliensbachian ones, then on a grey Sinemurian limestone with Gryphaea. Lower still, east of Sampigny, the vines sit squarely on Triassic clays; to the south-east, at Cheilly, on clays, sandstones and limestones laid down during a Rhaetian-Hettangian marine transgression. The Lias and the Triassic beneath a village appellation of the Côte de Beaune: that is a singularity.
Soils, Climate and Work in the Vineyard
Pedology follows geology. Whitish clay-limestone soils, such as the calcosols at the top of the Maranges, are held to suit chardonnay better; the more clayey brown soils — the yellow-brown colluvium that covers most of the slope — are reserved for pinot noir. On the upper slope at Dezize, the soils are stony and thin; they deepen and grow richer in clay as one descends towards Cheilly.
The climate is that of Burgundy: temperate oceanic with a slight continental tendency, rain spread across the year, a wide thermal range. But the reference weather station, at Chagny, stands at 234 metres on the plain, whereas the vineyard climbs to 400 metres: the Maranges are therefore appreciably cooler than those readings suggest. Studies carried out at the Savigny-lès-Beaune and La Rochepot stations show a clear rise in temperatures since 1988 — precisely the age of the appellation — and harvests brought forward by about twelve days. Irrigation is forbidden by the cahier des charges.
The Style of the Wines: The Firmness of the Southern Côte
Red maranges shows a ruby robe, sometimes dark garnet, over a nose of red fruits, blackcurrant bud, spiced fruits, sometimes peony. The palate is fresh and liquorice-scented, peppery, with firm tannins for a côte-de-beaune. This structure is nothing new: in the nineteenth century, more tannic and more deeply coloured than their neighbours, the wines of the Maranges served as "vins médecins" for the merchant trade, which used them to reinforce other cuvées. Today they ask two to five years of cellaring, the premiers crus from good vintages going up to ten, and they gain from being decanted in their youth. Serve between 14 and 16°C, with a grilled cut of beef, a bœuf bourguignon, braised pork or a powerful cheese such as époisses.
The whites, still in the minority but rising sharply — from 5.35 hectares in 2008 to 19.11 hectares in 2022 — show a golden robe and a nose of white flowers (hawthorn, acacia, honeysuckle). Less intense than the puligny, chassagne or saint-aubin, they are supple and lively, to be drunk within their first five to six years, served between 12 and 13°C with fish, a jambon persillé or a terrine. Note: red maranges is entitled to add the complementary geographical denomination "Côte de Beaune" to its name — which makes it neither a "côte de beaune" nor a "côte de beaune-villages", two quite distinct appellations.
Seven Premiers Crus on a Single Slope
Seven climats are classified as premier cru, and they pay no heed to communal boundaries: les Clos Roussots (on Cheilly and on Sampigny), La Fussière and the Clos de la Fussière (on Dezize and on Cheilly), the Clos de la Boutière (Cheilly), Le Croix Moines (Dezize), the Clos des Rois and the Clos des Loyères (Sampigny). They weigh heavily in the appellation: 85 hectares out of 199, more than 40% of the area, a rare proportion in Burgundy. The lieu-dit "les Maranges" itself refers to the slope centred on the clos de la Fussière, north of the D136: the boundaries of the three communes cross it, most of it lying on Dezize.
The names of the villages tell that story. In 1895 Dezize asked to change its name — officially to avoid confusion with Decize in the Nièvre, in reality to imitate Aloxe-Corton (1862), Chassagne-Montrachet (1879) or Gevrey-Chambertin (1847). The three communes therefore added to their names that of their most renowned climat. According to one of the town halls, "Maranges" may have an etymological link with the sea, because of the many fossils held in the sedimentary soil of the vineyard.
An Appellation Born in 1988
The administrative history is instructive. The 1937 decree that created the Côte de Beaune-Villages appellation subdivided it into fifteen village appellations, among them "Cheilly-lès-Maranges", "Dezize-lès-Maranges" and "Sampigny-lès-Maranges"; in the case of a blend between villages, Côte de Beaune-Villages could be used. The premiers crus were instituted shortly afterwards. In 1970 the seventeen appellations of the Côte de Beaune received a common cahier des charges, with a yield still capped at 35 hl/ha. Then the 1988 decree grouped the three appellations into a single one, "maranges", from the 1988 harvest onwards. The cahier des charges was revised in 2009 (conversion to PDO) and again in 2011.
That late regrouping has paid off. The planted area is growing: 162 hectares in 2008, 199 in 2022. The price of a hectare of vines in maranges was estimated by the SAFER at 112,000 euros in 2023, against 32,000 euros for a vineyard classified as bourgogne in the same sector. Long sold under borrowed names from the Côte, the wines of the three villages have at last an identity of their own — and the Maranges have hosted the Saint-Vincent tournante, as Burgundian a consecration as there is.