La Tâche (vineyards)

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La Tâche in autumn.

La Tache is a Grand Cru classified vineyard on the Côte d'Or in French Burgundy wine country . It is located in the municipality of Vosne-Romanée , has an area of ​​6.06 hectares and its own appellation . Only red wine is produced .

Location, climate and soil

The La Tâche vineyard is located on a gently sloping eastern slope at a height of 255 to 300 m above sea level . In the north it borders on the La Grande Rue vineyard and is only separated from the well-known Grand Cru locations La Romanée and Romanée-Conti by this narrow vineyard . To the east, the site is in part directly adjacent to the village center of Vosne and, on the other hand, a small vineyard area with the status of a Bourgogne village is pushed between the village and La Tâche. In the south lies the Premier Cru site Aux Malconsorts . The vineyards are made up of the La Tâche (1.43 hectares) and Les Gaudichots (4.62 hectares). La Tâche is a monopoly of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti .

The climate is assigned to the Burgundian transitional climate , in which continental influences predominate over maritime ones. The mostly dry and hot summers allow the Pinot Noir to ripen, but great vintages are only created if there is no rain in autumn to impair the harvest. Due to the pure east location, the microclimate is relatively cool, but particularly sunny. Located just below the cut of the Combe de Concoeur , La Tâche is protected from night winds and late frosts.

The higher part of the vineyard rests on an oolite plinth from the Bathonium . The subsoil of the deeper part of the site is on Premeaux limestone. The brown, loamy-chalky rendzina layer of La Tâche is significantly thinner in the upper part than in the lower part. In the lowest area of ​​the site, fossil-bearing marl from the Bajocium is exposed . The numerous limestones store the warmth of the day and radiate it back to the vines at night. They also ensure good drainage .

Wine

La Tâche wine is usually made exclusively from Pinot noir . As more varieties are Pinot Liébault and Pinot Beurot admitted. In theory, up to 15% white grapes ( Chardonnay , Pinot gris and Pinot blanc ) can be used. The natural alcohol content must be at least 11.5  percent by volume. The chaptalization is - as everywhere in Burgundy - allowed. In the case of artificial enrichment with dry sugar, a maximum alcohol content of 14.5 ° is specified. The basic yield is 35 hectoliters per hectare per year, this may be exceeded by a maximum of 20%. From 2003 to 2007, an average of 151 hectoliters were produced from the entire vineyard. This corresponds to 25.1 hl / ha annually. This Grand Cru delivers a good 19,630 bottles per year.

In 2005 the mean age of the vines was 54 years. The last new plantings at this point in time were from 1998, 2001 and 2005. In 1947 and 1948, suitable vines were removed from this vineyard for planting the Romanée-Conti site.

In descriptions, wine connoisseurs attribute a special richness of taste, finesse and complexity as well as shelf life to the red wine.

  • Location La Tâche in Vosne-Romanée

  • Vine - La Tâche in 2016

history

The history of the Grand Cru vineyards of Vosne-Romanée is inextricably linked with the abbeys of Cîteaux and Saint-Vivant in what is now Curtil-Vergy . The monasteries operated viticulture until 1791. The reputation of La Tâche is documented, among other things, by a directory of the Louis XVI cellar . The wine trades there alongside Clos de Vougeot , Richebourg , Chambertin and Romanée-Saint-Vivant . In Revolutionary France , the Church's properties were declared national goods and auctioned. La Tâche was acquired by the wine merchant Nicolas-Joseph Marey (1760-1818) from Nuits-Saint-Georges . He was married to the daughter of the mathematician and temporary minister Gaspard Monge from Beaune , so this branch of the family was named Marey-Monge. Marey paid 900 livres per ouvrée (one ouvrée = 0.428 hectares) for the former 1.5 hectare site . The purchase contract stated that the wines from La Tâche were the best wines from Vosne. Thus the price for an ouvrée was significantly higher than in the Chambertin (777 livres), Clos de Tart (415 livres) or even in the Clos de Vougeot (616 livres).

In 1815, Louis Liger-Belair and his son Louis-Charles purchased 40 hectares of vineyards in Vosne and the surrounding area, including the La Tâche vineyard. After the land had shrunk to just 24 hectares by 1933, the family sold the La Tâche site to the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti due to inheritance disputes .

The La Tâche site received the status of a Grand Cru on September 11, 1936. A 4.62 hectare part of the Les Gaudichots district was added to the actual La Tâche area (1.43 hectares) . The decree on the Appellation Contrôlée also covers the neighboring Grands Cru sites Romanée-Saint-Vivant , Richebourg , Romanée-Conti and La Romanée .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Decree on the Appellations Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Richebourg, Romanée-Conti, La Romanée and La Tâche (PDF) last accessed on 23 October 2009.
  2. ↑ Michael Broadbent , Gert Crum et al. a .: Le Domaine de la Romanée-Conti: cradle of legendary Burgundy wines. Zabert Sandmann, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89883-103-5 , pp. 131-134.
  3. ^ Remington Norman: Côte d'Or. The big wineries in the heart of Burgundy. Hallwag Verlag, Bern 1996, ISBN 3-444-10470-7 , p. 93.