Cheilly-lès-Maranges

With Cheilly-lès-Maranges the Côte de Beaune comes to an end: the area of the Côte de Beaune-Villages appellation runs from Ladoix-Serrigny, in the north, to Cheilly, in the south. It is the largest and the lowest of the three Maranges villages, in Saône-et-Loire, bordering Santenay and the Côte-d'Or; the village sits low, toward the Dheune, the river that separates the Côte de Beaune, on its left bank, from the Côte Chalonnaise.

Cheilly shares with Dezize and Sampigny the Maranges AOC, created in 1989 from the merger of three communal appellations of 1937: reds and whites, seven Premier Cru climats and, for the reds, the option of being released as Côte de Beaune-Villages. More than half of the delimited area falls within Cheilly. On the valley floor of the Cozanne the soils are light and gravelly; climbing toward Dezize one meets the brown limestones and calcareous marls of the Maranges slope, between about 230 and 375 meters. The commune holds the whole of the Clos de la Boutière and the greater part of Les Clos Roussots, shared with Sampigny, as well as a portion of La Fussière, shared with Dezize.

The wine is almost all red, from Pinot Noir: deep color, red fruits and forest floor, soft tannins and a broad body, with good aging potential; the little white, from Chardonnay, is round, with almond and exotic fruit. Since the Maranges hosted the Saint-Vincent Tournante of 1997, the traveling festival of Burgundy's winegrowers, these wines have found new admirers. The available bottles of Maranges from Cheilly, when there are any, appear further down.