Vosne-Romanee Les Gaudichots – History, owners & wines – update

The Vosne Romanee Les Gaudichot is the relatively unknown neighbourg of the great La Tache vineyard. Collectors are however beginning to appreciate the Gaudichot terroir – and the demand for the few bottles made is rising year after year.

The history of Les Gaudichots is very interesting and to a great extend also the history of La Tâche, as a very large part of the current La Tâche vineyard was a part of Les Gaudichots before 1934.

Update 01/07/2014 -new bottlings from Roche de Bellene and Domaine du Palais added

History of Les Gaudichots

Les Gaudichots was a quite large before the majority of the vineyard was included in La Tâche. The map below show the original Gaudichot vineyard and the original La Tâche vineyard – often refered to as La Tâche Joly de Bévy.

The area of Gaudichots was 5.95 ha in 1855 according to Lavalle¹, and the area of La Tâche was only 1.40 ha. Les Gaudichot was classified as Premiere Cuvee by Lavalle, just like Romanee Saint-Vivant, Malconsort, Grande Rue, Les Varroilles Sous Richeborg, Les Beaux-Monts, Combe-Brulee, Aux-Brulee and Les Suchots. La Tâche was classified as Tete de Cuvee as Romanee-Conti, La Romanee and Richebourg,

Owners of Les Gaudichots in 1855¹:

• MM. Lausseure
• Ragonneau
• Confuron
• Bergeret

The original La Tâche was owned by Liger-Belair, and according to Lavalle also Lausseure – it’s however unclear if Lausseure actually owned a part of the original vineyard or just adjacent plots in Les Gaudichots.

During the last part of the 19th century Duvault-Blochet acquired large parts of the Gaudichots vineyard, and Jacques Chambon is mentioned as one of th principal owners by Rodier in 1920. Some sources⁶ say that these plots were acqured already in 1834, 1839, 1859, 1862 and 1866 – but Lavalle doesn’t mention Duvault as one of the principal owners in 1855. Other sources mention that Duvault-Blochet acquired a large plot from M. Morellet in 1862 and in 1866 a southern plot from M. Lausseure ⁸.

Based on this it’s likely that Duvault-Blochet acquired most of the Gaudichots plots after 1855. These plots are today included in Domaine de la Romanee-Conti monopole La Tâche.

Owners of Les Gaudichots in 1892 according to Danguy & Aubertin:

• M. Dr. Chanut
• M. le Comte Liger-Belair

According to Danguy and Aubertin there were two owners on La Tâche in 1892 – MM. les heriteres Duvault and M. le comte Liger-Belair. This was of course not the case, but it shows that Les Gaudichots – or at least the Duvault plots on Les Gaudichots were considered a part of La Tâche by the authors.

Owners of Les Gaudichots (5 ha 79 ares 65 cents) in 1920 according to Rodier:

• J. Chambon
• de Champeaux

La Tâche Joly de Bévy (1 ha 40 ares 5 cent) was according to Rodier owned 100% by Liger-Belair i 1920 – and DRC (J. Chambon) is only mentioned as owner om Les Gaudichots. It’s quite strange that Liger-Belair is not mentioned as a owner of Les Gaudichots in 1920, as it it’s mentioned by Meadows that they sold of plots of Les Gaudichots in 1934 and 1935 – to DRC and Thomas-Moillard⁶.