Maranges

The wines

Vines face mostly south to southeast, between 240 and 400 metres. Cheilly has fairly light, stony soils, while Sampigny and Dezize share the brown limestone and limestone marls of southern Santenay. Red dominates: about 181 hectares of Pinot Noir against 19 of Chardonnay in 2022, per the Burgundy wine board. The reds are raspberry ruby, sometimes darker, and burst with fruit. The whites, a delicate gold, speak of hawthorn, acacia and honeysuckle.

History

Maranges wine long stayed in the shadow of more famous names. For generations much of it was sold in bulk to merchants, who valued its colour and tannin to strengthen their blends. The villages still took pride in their hillside. In 1898 Dezize and Cheilly were allowed to add lès-Maranges to their names, and Sampigny followed in 1899. Dezize had first asked in 1895, to avoid confusion with the town of Decize in the Nièvre.

Each village later received its own appellation, but most of the wine was sold as Côte de Beaune-Villages. A decree of 23 May 1989 finally united the three under the single name Maranges, starting with the 1988 harvest. Seven climats are classified premier cru. Above Dezize rises the Mont de Sène, the hill of the Three Crosses, where the Romans built a temple to Mercury on the summit.