Terroir Insight: Domaine Arlaud Clos Saint-Denis

Domaine Arlaud is in my view one of the somewhat overlooked gems of Morey-Saint-Denis. But after tasting their rare yet truly delightful Clos Saint-Denis I decided to set focus on this estate.

Domaine Arlaud offer a range of beautiful wines with a high drinkability and with quality increasing year by year.

So let’s take a closer look at the Clos St. Denis of Domaine Arlaud – let’s go to Morey!

Clos Saint-Denis the current vineyard

The total area of the vineyard is according to my calculations – 6.62 ha. Clos Saint-Denis today consists of plots from 4 climates – Clos Saint-Denis, Calouére, Maison Brûlée, and Les Chaffots – all located on the upper northern side of Morey-Saint-Denis – see map below…

Please note that the border between Les Chaffots 1 er cru and Clos Saint-Denis is not 100% accurate – see the maps below for more details

In many case, the borders between the vineyards are ancient and have remained unchanged for centuries. But in other cases .. especially when vineyards have been expanded, the borders between the vineyards become rather complex, leaving the vignerons with irregular plots, and a part of a plot in one vineyard and the rest of the plot in another.

This is also the case with the border between the expanded Clos Saint-Denis, and the remaining part of Morey-Saint-Denis Les Chaffots.

The very detailed map below shows the current Clos Saint-Denis with all plots shown on the map. There are as mentioned plots from four climates included in the current Clos Saint-Denis.

Plots from the following climats are today included in Clos Saint-Denis:

1. Clos Saint-Denis – 2.1420 ha
2. Maison Brûlée – 1.8425 ha
3. Calouére – 1.3165 ha
4. Les Chaffots – 1.3190 ha

As it can be seen Clos Saint-Denis has absorbed the climates Calouére and Maison Brûlée, while it has taken a considerable chunk of Morey Saint Denis Les Chaffots. The total area of Clos St. Denis today is 6.62 ha

The decree below from 1944 shows that in total 4.42 ha from the vineyards Calouére, Maison Brûlée, and Les Chaffots had been included in the Clos Saint-Denis thus expanding the total area to 6.5620 ha – almost equivalent to the current size. The expansion did however presumably happened already in 1936 – but the decree above is however the documentation I have been able to find.

The Domaine Arlaud plot on Clos Saint-Denis

Domaine Arlaud has two plots in Clos Saint-Denis – and these are in reality one area. The main plot is cadastre no 305 located in the core of the original Clos St. Denis, this plot is 0.1264 ha.

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