This Beaune 1er Cru is a wine with a brilliant garnet color, with a nose combining aromas of very ripe red and black fruits. It is a gourmet, tender, rich, precise and elegant wine. This wine won the top score at the 2020 London Wine Competition winning the best wine by country award for France.

Very beautiful plot located halfway up the hillside between Les Grèves and Les Fèves.

Technical information:

Name of the climat : Les Toussaints

Operated vineyard surface: 1.43 hectares

Grape variety: Pinot Noir

Soil: sandy clay-limestone

Exposure: East

Location: middle of the hillside

Harvest: manual harvest followed by a manual sorting and an optical sorting of the grapes

Vinification: after destalking the grapes, the juice, skin and pulp are put into the vat for the cold maceration. It lasts from 15 to 18 days. The alcoholic fermentation will follow, lasting from 5 to 6 days. These steps may be punctuated by push-downs.

Aging: in new oak barrels (35%) as well as in oak barrels of one or two years, preceded by the pneumatic pressing with juice separation

Time of aging: 12 to 15 months

The color is garnet and brilliant. The aromas of ripe red and black fruits are clearly perceptible. This wine is gourmet, tender, rich, precise and elegant.

Serving Temperature between 15° and 17°C 

Cellaring potential from now to 10 years

This wine is made by Château de Meursault which offers an exceptional setting located on the road of the Grands Crus, 8 kilometers from Beaune and 40 minutes from Dijon, capital of the Dukes of Burgundy. The Estates has 35 appellations on 110 plots.

The Château de Meursault (the building), stretches over 10 hectares including Château, conservatory, dovecote, outbuildings, winery, cellars, park, the Clos vineyard, Les Clous river and pond. The property has the dual specificity of being a Burgundy winery and having the name of the eponymous appellation! Indeed, even though there are many wine chateaux in the Bordeaux region, it is not the case for Burgundy where it is quite uncommon to have the name of a Château associated to a winery. The origin of the Château de Meursault dates back to the 11th century when the fief of the Moulin Foulot was constructed. In 1666, a manor house was built near the mill including a main building, two stables, a winepress, a cellar, a dovecote, an oven and a garden that crosses the creek. This manor was the center of a domain with vines located on Meursault and Monthélie. Until 1758 the pens is significantly expanded from 7 to 30 “ouvrée”, a terrace and paths are created, new buildings are constructed and Castle is arranged more comfortably. At the beginning of the 19th century a front facade is added by Charles Serre which at the same time was a vast vineyard. Italian inspiration can be noticed in the flat roof of hollow tiles of the North Tower and the banners that highlight levels.

The two-hectare park is located between the Château and its Clos vinyard. It always existed but was modified according to the English garden style by the Serre family. One may enjoy the magnificent three-century cedar and discover an icehouse, created under the park of the castle which was designed to keep food and beverages cool. In winter, the space was filled with snow and compacted ice that allowed cooling the food for 5-6 months. The Cloux Creek, which was used by Foulot Mill, crosses the village of Meursault and goes along Clos vineyard and the park on the Northern side of the estate. The stone dovecote was originally located in the main courtyard just in front of the entrance. However, a more impressive building for the dovecote was rebuilt later on in its present location. According to the custom, the higher the tower of the dovecote was, the bigger was the domain.

The cellars of Château de Meursault

The magnificent cellars created in the Cistercian style date back to the XII, XIV and XVI centuries and extend beneath the Château and its outbuildings on more than 3500 m². They can house up to 800 000 bottles and more than 2 000 barrels of wine. These beautiful double-vaulted cellars going down on square pillars offer ideal conditions for ageing and represent an exceptional estate in Burgundy.

Château de Meursault has been a Great Patron of the “Climats de Bourgogne Association” that promoted their candidacy in the world heritage of UNESCO. We were more than delighted to know that on the 5th of July 2015 it was finally accepted! Château de Meursault is located in the heart of Burgundy, in Côte de Beaune on the prestigious appellation of Meursault, which is a global reference for the great white wines. When you enter Château de Meursault, you find yourself in a mythical Burgundy wine estate, a place full of history where you can taste the wines from Côte de Beaune surrounded by unique architecture. Château de Meursault was acquired by the Halley family in December 2012, also owners of Château de Marsannay in Côte de Nuits and Marché aux Vins in Beaune. Over the years, the owners have made extensions and have considerably developed the vineyard which has become one of the most prestigious estates of Côte-d’Or. The vineyard extends on nearly 65 hectares from Puligny-Montrachet to Aloxe-Corton, including eighteen Premier Crus, three Grands Crus and a monopoly.

Château de Meursault produces the wines from Puligny-Montrachet located in the South of Côte de Beaune up to Corton in the North. Our wines coming from Pinot Noir grapes express their terroir, especially our Premiers Crus from Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Grand Cru from Corton.

In the Meursault appellation, the Château is the owner of about 10 “climats” including the prestigious Charmes, Charmes-Dessus and Perrières Premier Cru and possesses a monopoly: Clos des Grands Charrons. Chardonnay is also the grape variety that is planted in the magnificent parcels of Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ Gain and Champ Canet, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Beaune and Corton-Vergennes.

The bottle of Château de Meursault is produced in a special mold created in the 18th century: only the wines from Château de Meursault and Château de Marsannay are presented in these unique bottles !

Here are the highlights of the 2020 London Wine Competition.

Wine Of The Year - The Dead Arm Shiraz 2017, Australia, McLaren Vale

Winery Of The Year    d'Arenberg, Australia, McLaren Vale

Best Wine By Quality - The Dead Arm Shiraz 2017, Australia, McLaren Vale

Best Wine By Value - Villa Saletta Chianti 2015, Toscana IGT, Italy

Best Wine By Packaging - Silverado Vineyards SOLO Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, Napa Valley, United States

About London Wine Competition

The London Wine Competition is an international wine competition organized by Beverage Trade Network. The competition looks to recognize, reward and help promote wine brands that have successfully been created to identify with and target a specific wine drinker. 

For any wine brand to earn its place on a retailer’s shelf or a restaurant’s wine list -  and then vitally stay there - they need to be marketable and consumer-driven and not just produced in the general hope it can find enough people willing to sell and buy it. Learn more at www.londonwinecompetition.com