De Aureo Spirito is a brotherhood formed by owners of great historic houses of Burgundy.
Their coats of arms attest of the ancestral traditions of our region.
With subtle maturing, the wines are produced in limited quantities.
CLOS DE VOUGEOT GRAND CRU 2013

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2013  

Clos de Vougeot is only made from Pinot Noir grapes.

The Clos was founded around 1110 by monks from the Abbaye de Cîteaux. The chateau built during the Renaissance is the head office of the Brotherhood of the Knights of Tastevin.

The castel of "Clos de Vougeot" is one of the mythical places in the Côte de Nuits, in Burgundy. The vineyard covers 50 hectares, 2 acres and 800 square feet.  At around 240m altitude on the lower section the soil is brown, heavy and clayey. In the upper section at around 255m altitude, the soil has a rougher structure with less clay and a great deal of gravel. The layer of earth does not stretch further than 40cm. The high level of active chalk makes up for the soil's low rendzina content. No other Burgundy Grand Cru grows so low in the plain.

Colour: deep ruby red with violet tints.
Nose: starts with elegant woody notes and then develops aromas of pecan nuts, sweet spices and truffles.
Palate: in the mouth it offers woodiness and elegant, established tannins that require a few years laying down to mellow.

This Grand Cru is ideal served with meat stews, small and large game, goose and soft cheeses. A must : serve it with dark chocolate cake for dessert.

Serve at around 16-17°C.

This wine can be laid down for around fifteen years.

Vinification in wooden vats followed by maturing in barrels for 15 to 18 months (30% new oak).

The 2013 vintage will likely be remembered as one of the most difficult vintages of this new millennium.

An extremely cold and wet spring season delayed the flowering and, most importantly, extended the flowering process to more than two weeks throughout France. This long period of time brought about varied levels of maturation in the grapes, forcing winegrowers to adapt their work in the vines.

Thankfully, great weather conditions returned by the end of June. The summer was quite warm and dry, which was reassuring and beneficial to the quality and maturation of the grapes; because even if these weather conditions did not allow for the vines to catch up with the delayed flowering, they brought significant taste and density to the fruit.

One very dark date to remember however is July 23, when the most violent hailstorm of these past 30 years pounded on the Côte de Beaune, destroying a large part of the harvest in Pommard, Beaune, Savigny, and Pernand-Vergelesses.

After a fresh and rainy month of September, the vineyards had to face an exceptionally late harvest. The grapes, weakened by the various weather-related events, had to be meticulously sorted. The yields were low, with a volume equal to, and in some cases much lower than that of 2012.

Everything depended on the pace of the harvest, which had to consider the compromise between the good sanitary condition of the grapes and their maturity. Nature left us with a window of opportunity lasting a few days; the best knew how to benefit from this opportunity and vinified some very nice cuvées. By profiting from the low yields they created wonderful wines, especially in the Côte de Nuits. For the whites, the Chardonnay reacted very well and offers quite fragrant cuvées with nice fresh notes of citrus.

The 2013 vintage will thus remain an example of the winemakers' savoir-faire and their fight to face the whims of Mother Nature.