Overview
Le Clos du Chapitre is a premier cru climat of the Aloxe-Corton appellation in the Cote de Beaune, one of the fourteen climats entitled to premier cru status within the AOC. It is a walled vineyard of just under two hectares sitting at the heart of the village of Aloxe-Corton itself, on the cadastral lieu-dit Les Meix. The clos is farmed by two estates, Domaine Follin-Arbelet and Domaine Genot-Boulanger, whose holdings are given as 0.95 and 0.97 hectares. It should not be confused with the climats of the same name in Gevrey-Chambertin and Fixin, both in the Cote de Nuits.
History
The name records the vineyard's former ownership by the cathedral chapter of Autun, whose canons held a domain at Aloxe; a chapter was the college of clergy attached to a cathedral, and clos bearing the name appear wherever such bodies held vineyard land in Burgundy. A street in the village, the Rue du Chapitre, preserves the same association.
The Aloxe-Corton appellation was created by decree on March 11, 1938. Under its rules the names of the classified climats, Clos du Chapitre among them, may be appended to the appellation with the mention Premier Cru when the wine comes entirely from the named site. The clos remains enclosed by its old stone walls.
Terroir & Climate
Aloxe-Corton's vineyards lie between roughly 200 and 300 metres on the lower slopes of the Corton hill; the Clos du Chapitre occupies low-lying ground within the village itself, below the mid-slope premiers crus. The parcels face south. Soils are reddish brown and very stony, with flint and limestone debris over redder, deeper clay toward the bottom of the clos; producers attribute the site's even ripening to this stony, well drained ground. The climate is that of the Cote de Beaune generally: semi-continental, with the east and south facing exposures of the Corton hillside favouring full ripening of Pinot Noir.
Grape Varieties & Wine Styles
Aloxe-Corton is overwhelmingly a red appellation: Pinot Noir, with up to 15 percent of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris permitted as accessory varieties in the reds, and a very small quantity of white produced from Chardonnay. The INAO registers both a rouge and a blanc for the Clos du Chapitre climat, though production is effectively all red.
The wines are in the Aloxe-Corton register: firm, structured Pinot Noir with red and dark cherry fruit and an earthy, mineral cast. Both producers describe the clos's stony ground as giving early, even ripening and wines of balance and harmony rather than raw power. Genot-Boulanger's parcel carries vines averaging around 50 years of age.
Notable Producers
Domaine Follin-Arbelet, based in Aloxe-Corton and run by Franck Follin-Arbelet with his son Simon, farms 0.95 hectares of the clos; the wine is imported to the United States by Kermit Lynch. Domaine Genot-Boulanger, based in Meursault and directed by Aude Genot and Guillaume Lavollee since 2008, farms 0.97 hectares. Négociant bottlings also exist, from Maison Morey-Blanc and, in some vintages, Louis Latour.
What to Know
Three Burgundy climats share this name, and the label resolves the ambiguity: this one reads Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru Clos du Chapitre. The Gevrey-Chambertin Clos du Chapitre is a one hectare premier cru monopole of the Nuiton-Beaunoy cooperative, and the better known Fixin Clos du Chapitre is a 4.8 hectare premier cru monopole of Domaine Guy et Yvan Dufouleur. With only two producers and under two hectares, total production of the Aloxe-Corton cru is small, and Follin-Arbelet and Genot-Boulanger are the best-known names a buyer will encounter. Unlike most Aloxe premiers crus, which sit on the slope above the village, this clos lies within the village itself, and its wines are village-centre Aloxe rather than Corton-adjacent hillside wine.