Auxey Duresses

Domaine Taupenot-Merme is a Burgundy wine estate located in the heart of the Côte de Beaune at Morey-Saint-Denis. The Pinot Noir-based wines aim to represent various terroirs rather than an overwhelming house style.

The domaine owns around 13 hectares (32 acres) of vineyard, spread across 19 different appellations in both the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. The domaine makes wine from several key grand and premier cru vineyards, including Charmes-Chambertin and Mazoyères-Chambertin, and the La Riotte Premier Cru in Morey-Saint-Denis. Taupenot-Merme also owns a small portion of the Clos des Lambrays vineyard, which is otherwise owned by the Domaine des Lambrays. The vineyards have been farmed organically since 2001.

The domaine in its current form was founded in 1963, after the marriage of Denise Merme and Jean Taupenot. Their son Romain joined full-time in 1998, becoming the seventh generation of the Taupenot family to work as winemaker.

LOCATION
Auxey-Duresses (pronounced “Aussey”) stands at the entrance to a valley
which runs from the Côte de Beaune into the Hautes Côtes, following the
road that leads from Beaune to Autun amongst hump-backed hillsides.
Together with its hamlets of Petit-Auxey and Mélian, Auxey-Duresses is
incontestably one of Bourgogne’s Celtic and Gallo-Roman wine-growing
districts. It was formerly an outlying property of the abbey of Cluny,
producing both grains and grapes. The corn-mills have now gone but there
are still wine presses. Auxey-Duresses was granted its AOC status in 1937.
SOILS
Nature determines which plots suit the white wines and which the reds. On
the hill of Bourdon, geologically an extension of Volnay and Monthélie, the
soil is a pebbly marl-limestone mix which gives vigour to the east/south-east
facing vineyard of Duresses. The Climat “Climat du Val”, on the other hand,
faces south and has very limey soil, while in La Chapelle marl predominates
over limestone. And on the hill of Mélian, the fine-textured soil prefigures that of
nearby Meursault and Puligny, the paradise of white wines.