Lieu Dits, Climats and Crus

The pretty nerdy question of what is the difference in Burgundy between a “climat” and a ‘lieu dit” came up a recent tasting and resulted in some head scratching. There is a really good text on this topic in French which thoroughly explains the difference and from which I have sourced much of the below - Sylvain Pitiot and Pierre Poupon’s “Nouvel Atlas des Grands Vignobles de Bourgogne”. There is of course a third term - ‘cru” - whose meaning I cover later. 

In the French language the words lieu dit simply mean a “named place”. Since the start of the 19th century the term lieu dit refers to a particular parcel of land that under traditional and historical use is referred to by that name and has a boundary defined by topology or historical tradition. It might for example be named after a former owner of the land or the prevalence of certain trees or fauna in the locality or because the particular shape of its landscape or soils. These parcels are not designated in the Appellation Controlee laws.

In contrast, the term climat is linked exclusively to the Appellation Controlee designated sites - but, importantly,  these can be village level sites. Normally a climat is a more narrowly defined parcel of land than a lieu dit but a single climat might also include several lieu dits. The term climat references a parcel of land that has for a very long time been treated as an identifiable unit - in our context, as a singular vineyard - due to some perceived similarity observed by man. Since 2015 the climats of Burgundy - of which there are about 1,000 - where designated by Unesco as among the worlds treasures.

For example "Aloxe Corton Premier Cru Chapitre”- a climat - is a parcel within the larger lieu dit “Les Mieux”.

Sometimes a climat spreads over two lieu dits. For example "Aussey Duresses Premier Cru La Chapelle” straddles parts of both the lieu dits “Les Breterins” and Reugne”.  A climat might compose the entirety of one lieu dit and just a part of a second.  

Or a climat might be a subset of a single lieu dit.

A lieu dit can also straddle several levels of the Appellation Controlle's designation.  To bring this back to the wines our group were tasting when this subject came up, the lieu dit “Les Paulands” in Aloxe Corton covers land that is village level, Premier Cru, but also Grand Cru (when it is called “Corton Les Paulands”).

But they may also be coincident - covering the identical territory. Very often they are.

The term ”Cru” is reserved in the Appellation Controlee regulations strictly for Premier Crus and Grand Crus only.  A village wine would not be referred to as coming from a cru - but, as I understand it, a village vine parcel absolutely could be a defined climat under the Appellation Controlee rules with a particular boundary.  Often the boundary between a climat and a lieu dit - especially at village level - cover precisely the same territory, as is evident from the side by side maps in the above referenced text.

None of which really matters much to anything.  But hopefully this answers the question if it ever comes up.