La Revue de Vin de France, the leading French wine magazine, has published '8 Premier Crus of the Côte d'Or that should be treated as exceptional'. These eight Premiers Crus are selected from one of the village's leading first growth vineyards from each of the eight renowned communes, including Clos Saint-Jacques in the village of Jouvre-Chambertin and Les Amoureux in the village of Chambolle-Musigny, which are considered to be up to Grand Cru status. However, while today's consumers feel it 'deserves' to be selected, it is Clos Parantoux in the village of Vosne-Romanée that is frowned upon by the officials of the Committee for the Control of Appellations of Origin, which officially rated the wines in 1936.
historical review
Clos Parantoux is a small first growth of 1.01 hectares (ha), located on the upper slopes of the prestigious Richebourg vineyard, bordered on the north by Véloille, a climat (parcel) comprising the prestigious Richebourg vineyard, and on the south by Les Petits Monts, also a prestigious vineyard. The ledger registers Clos Parantoux in much the same way as it is today. Due to its north-easterly slope, the vineyard is cool, with thin topsoil and limestone-rich soils. The lack of a farm road leading directly to the vineyard meant that tractors could not enter, so Henri Jayet ploughed the Clos Palantoux with horses. The wines tend to be lower in alcohol and higher in acidity than those of neighbouring Richebourg.
In 1855, 81 years before the Controlled Designation of Origin Act, the classification of the village of Vosne, carried out by botanist Dr Jules Laval in his 'History and Statistics on the Vines and Great Wines of the Côte d'Or Department', focused in particular on geology and used a five-level grading system for vineyards. Four of the vineyards selected for special wines (tete de cuvée) were Romanée-Conti, Richebourg, La Tache and La Romanée, while those selected for first class wines (première cuvée) were the vineyards currently classified as grand crus, such as Romanée St Vivant and La Grande Rue, as well as but also current first-class vineyards such as Les Marconsoles, Les Beaumonts, Haut-Brûlée and Les Suchots. In the Laval classification, Clos Parantoux was only a third-class wine and was not selected as a second-class wine, which included Haut Chaume, Les Hauts-Mezieres and Haut Réa. From the perspective of Dr Laval's classification, the 'Premier Cru of Vosne-Romanée that should be treated differently' should be Les Malconsoles and Haut Brûlée, and the mention of Clos Palantoux is a surprise.
In 1920, 65 years after Jules Laval's classification, Camille Rodier, one of the founders of La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (The Burgundian Order of Tasting Wine), published 'The Wines of Burgundy', detailing the wines of the Côte d'Or department. Rodier's classification followed Laval's approach, but generalised the content to make it more of a guidebook, and combined with advances in printing technology, he also used photographs and colour maps. While Laval rated the vineyards of the village of Vosne on a five-point scale, Rodier did so on a four-point scale, with Clos Parantoux being the second wine in the top three levels. Like Laval, Rodier also rated higher for Les Marconsoles, Les Beaumonts, Haut-Brûlée and Les Suchots.
When the Committee for the Control of Appellations of Origin officially rated the village of Vosne in 1936, perhaps because of the writings of Laval and Rodier to which he referred, Clos Parantoux was not selected as a first-class vineyard, despite being adjacent to Richebourg, but was given the village name. To be elevated to first vineyard status, it had to await a 1953 petition by Henri Jayet.
Henri Jayet (1922 - 2006)
Clos Palantou did not achieve its current fame until after the 1950s, when Henri Jayet became involved: after the phylloxera disaster at the end of the 19th century, most of Clos Palantou was not planted with vines and the vineyards were abandoned and turned into bushes. In addition, during the Second World War, some of the area was cultivated for food self-sufficiency, and some of the area was planted with woody plants. Henri Jayet had to use over 400 rounds of dynamite to break up the huge limestone formations in order to plant the vines, and the roots of the woodcock had grown so deep into the ground that they were very difficult to remove. Henri Jayet acquired his first parcel of Clos Parantoux from the Lobro family in 1951, but it was not until 1953 that he was able to start planting Pinot Noir, due to these difficulties in clearing the land.
Prior to the 1976 vintage, Henri Jayet sold most of the wine he made to a negociant. The Belgian companies Caves d'Esserie and Alexis Lisines were known to handle the wines, and these two companies displayed the name 'Henri Jaillet' on their labels as the producer. The name "Clos Parantoux" is thought to have first appeared on the label in the 1978 vintage, when Henri Jayet began bottling ex-domain. In earlier vintages, wines from the Clos Parantoux vineyard were sold under the Vosne-Romanée village name.
The 1.01 ha Clos Parantoux is now owned by the Jayet family, represented by Emmanuel Rouget, on 0.7177 ha, with the remaining 0.2950 ha owned by the Camuset family of Domaine Meaux-Camuset. As Henri Jayet was Domaines Meaux-Camuset's sharecropper from the 1950s until 1988, Clos Parantoux was effectively Henri Jayet's monopole (solely owned vineyard) until the 1984 vintage, when Meaux-Camuset began bottling under its own label. The fifty-fifty farming agreement with Henri Jayet for Domaine Meaux-Camuset's share of Clos Parantoux ended with the 1988 vintage. During the period of the fifty-fifty farming, half of the red wine from Clos Parantoux vinified from the Meaux-Camuset share was paid to Domaine Meaux-Camuset as land rent, with the other half remaining in Henri Jayer's cellars. Henri Jayet himself vinified Clos Parantoux up to the 1988 vintage, when it was labelled Domaine Meaux-Camuset.
Meanwhile, from the 1989 vintage onwards, Henri Jayet's nephew, Emmanuel Rouget, half-cultivated part of Jayet's share of Clos Parantoux and began shipping it under the Domaine Emmanuel Rouget label. Henri Jayet officially retired with the 1995 vintage, but continued to make very small quantities of wine under the Domaine Henri Jayet label until 2001; from 1996 onwards, Clos Parantoux was labelled 'Réserve' in the top left-hand corner of the label. 'Réserve' in the top left-hand corner of the label.
With the complete retirement of Henri Jayet, 2001 was the last vintage of Clos Parantoux under the Domaine Henri Jayet label; from 2002 onwards there are only two labels, Domaine Emmanuel Rouget and Domaine Meaux-Camuset, with an annual production of 750ml The annual production is around 3,000-4,000 bottles of 750ml equivalent. Both are very high quality red wines, but the Meaux-Camuset one is more extracted, hard and modern in style, while Emmanuelle Rouget's wine is elegant and soft, in the style of Jayet.
So, why did Dr Jules Laval and Camille Rodier rate Les Malconsors, Les Beaumonts, Haut-Brûlée and Les Sceaux so highly, while La Revue de Vin de France ranked Clos Parantoux as the best first growth in the village of Vosne-Romanée? The answer is simple: whereas Laval and Rodier rated the potential of the vineyard, I believe La Revue rated the average quality of the wines in circulation. Whereas Clos Parantoux is farmed and vinified by two of Burgundy's finest leading producers, Les Suchots, for example, with an area of over 13 ha, is owned by 21 separate domains, and not all of the owners are good producers. Not all wines from favourable vineyards are great, and it is only in the hands of good producers that memorable wines are produced.