🏛️ The Climats, terroirs of Burgundy

The Climats of Burgundy are over a thousand tiny, precisely defined slope plots in Burgundy, France, added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2015. The word climat here does not mean weather but a separate piece of land with particular soil and position. There are 1,247 such plots.

They lie on the slopes of the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune, on limestone soils. In the Middle Ages monks, notably the Cistercians, watched the land, tasted wine from different plots and recorded the differences. The Dukes of Burgundy also supported winemaking. This produced a system in which every plot has a name and boundaries. The famous Hospices de Beaune is here too, and the hospital's vineyards lie on these climats.

The climats are a bright example of terroir: wines from neighbouring plots with the same grape differ noticeably. They belong to the wine-related UNESCO heritage. The system became the basis of Burgundy's appellations, including village, premier cru and grand cru.