26/06/2025
The village of Meursault is the largest AOC and village in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune – a sizeable appellation, 317 ha are entitled to the Village AOC and a further 134 ha are classified as Meursault Premier Cru. By comparison, the corresponding figures for Puligny-Montrachet are just 114 ha of Village AOC and 100 ha of Premier Cru respectively. And there is more designated Meursault village land than in Puligny & Chassagne-Montrachet put together.
For all its size however, Meursault is not home to any Grand Cru vineyards. And, certainly in whites, there are just six main Premier Crus of serious note: Gouttes d’Or, Poruzot & Bouchères plus the star trifecta of Perrières, Charmes & Genevrières.
As Jasper Morris MW notes in his book Inside Burgundy (2nd Edition); “There are no grand crus in Meursault, and perhaps just three front line premier crus, though Meursault really comes into its own with the quality of its village wines…individual cuvées from single vineyards has its strongest expression here in Meursault.”
As alluded to by Jasper above, this village is now synonymous with numerous high quality village level ‘lieux dits’ such as Narvaux, Tillets, Grands Charrons, Limozin or Meix Chavaux. Although René Lafon began to bottle his Clos de la Barre separately from his other village parcels half a century ago, these individual bottlings were really pioneered and popularised by Guy Roulot (Jean-Marc’s father) at Domaine Roulot. Today, Roulot is arguably still the best address for a thorough and unmatched explorations of Meursault’s different climats (they even also make a range of eaux-de-vie from these plots); from Vireuils to Meix Chavaux, to Luchets, Tillets and Narvaux and finally À Mon Plaisir Clos du Haut Tesson (aka Les Tessons). Roulot have recently purchased Casse Têtes and Les Clous which will soon feature, and in the 2023 vintage also produced a second Meix Chavaux bottling (cuvée 1929) from a plot planted in 1929 by Jean-Marc’s grandfather. These Roulot lieux-dit bottlings now tend to be priced in the secondary market at around £300-350 per bottle.
“Next we drive high up into Meursault’s lofty hillside vineyards, one of the village’s great strengths. Though only village rated, in the new Meursault paradigm of leaner, racier wines, many produce at near Premier Cru level, a notion strengthened by the fact that so many are now familiar names to wine lovers: Rougeots, Tessons, Narvaux, Luchets, Chevalières, Tillets, and Grand Charrons. At their high altitudes, in (increasingly common) warmer years, these vineyards excel…”
The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste, Rajat Parr and Jordan Mackay (2018)
Credit: ClimaVinea
On the hillside above the village, nestled amidst Le Tesson and Les Chevalières, is the notable vineyard of Les Rougeots. Many of the best village lieux-dit vineyards are located here:
Credit: Winehog.org
Among the most defining, coveted and sought after white Burgundies today remains Coche-Dury’s Meursault ‘Les Rougeots’, a wine which on average changes hands in the secondary market for over £1,000 a bottle most vintages.
Within Les Rougeots there is a walled ‘Clos’, accordingly named ‘Clos de Rougeot’ and regarded by many locals as the best lieu dit terroir in the entire village. As far back as the 1850s, this vineyard was recognised by Dr Jules Lavalle in the lesser known 1855 classification of Burgundy’s vineyards.
More recently in 2020, Gilles and Maxime Lafouge (Domaine Lafouge) accomplished a coup and managed to purchase the enitre walled vineyard of Meursault Clos de Rougeots within Les Rougeots (about 1/3 or the total vineyard) giving them a rare Monopole. It was previously owned by an old friend of the Lafouge family in the village who approached them first when they wanted to sell. The previous owners were not winemakers and used to lease the vines to other local families including Raphaël Coche (Coche-Dury). This land was purchased by Lafouge 5 years ago now for an undisclosed but undoubtably substantial sum, made possible by the various grants now in place to support talented local young winemakers like Maxime.
Coche will still bottle a Les Rougeots from some vines located outside the Clos. But Gilles Lafouge told us that the Coche family used to also rent vines from the previous owner of the Clos for their Les Rougeots bottling. The remaining Coche vines lie just below the Clos (pictured below).
The soils here are red and iron rich, and the very best vines of this exciting parcel lie with the protected and designated Clos area. Maxime Lafouge often notes when tasting this wine together that ‘you have the tension of the terroir’. Both at Lafouge and in the context of modern-day Meursault, this is crystalline, energetic, textured, precise and unquestionably one of the villages finest wines. Each year Maxime Lafouge better understands this site and better captures its vibrancy and nuance.
The inaugural 2021 vintage was a short crop with severe frost damage reducing yields. As a result, the entirety of our 2021 Clos de Rougeot was snapped up on release and sold En Primeur over 2 years ago now. However, the more generous 2022 vintage enabled greater volumes, and we a handful of cases still available of this vintage which are also physically arrived at our warehouse. Please let us know if you’d like to take a case or two of this special Meursault.
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