Le Clos de la Tour de Curon

In 2001 Stéphane and Bénédicte Tissot bought a stretch of abandoned land at the Tour de Curon, a tower on the slope above Arbois. They cleared it in 2002 and planted it the same year, and that August horses began working the new vines. In their own words, they are proud to bring this place, so full of history, back to life.

The clos sits on Bajocian limestone scree. The vines are planted at 12,000 per hectare and trained on single stakes, on échalas. Les Passionnés du Vin, a French merchant, puts the clos at 72 ares facing south and south-west on its page for the 2022, and speaks of marl and limestone soils. Flatiron Wines in New York describes it as walled and worked by horse.

The wine is pure Chardonnay, made ouillé: the barrels are topped up, so it stays fresh rather than oxidative, as Flatiron puts it. The same merchant describes a fermentation on native yeasts and a stay on fine lees in oak. The vineyard is farmed biodynamically, like the rest of the domaine.

Flatiron calls it Stéphane's flagship, and it sits among the domaine's named terroirs next to Les Bruyères, La Mailloche and En Barberon. La Mailloche came to the domaine as existing vines in 2000. Curon was rebuilt from fallow ground and planted with cuttings from the domaine's own old vines, so every vine on it has only ever known the Tissots' hands.