Le Clos de Beaujeu is one of Boulay’s ‘blue-blood’ historic sites. Boulay farms two parcels in this terroir, including one within the original Clos of this vineyard, established by the monks of Beaujeu in the Middle Ages. This parcel is historically known as Le Grand Clos. For this reason, Boulay names this wine Clos de Beaujeu rather than the more ubiquitous Cul de Beaujeu. In his book entitled Le Vignoble de Chavignol, Thibaut Boulay notes that this vineyard first appears in documents dating to 1328 as the Clausus de Bellojoco, an indication of this terroir’s age-old origins. Vines on this slope of Kimmeridgian limestone and clay (terre blanches) sit between 30 and (a remarkable) 110 years old. The soils here are particularly rocky—limestone rich and strewn with fossils—making this parcel very difficult to farm. A second, even steeper parcel at a 60 per cent gradient lies closer to the village. Together, these south-east facing plots make the Clos de Beaujeu the source of some of the domaine’s most structured and nervy wines. This cuvée is naturally fermented and raised in large, upright cask (60%) and three- and four-year-old 300-litre barrels (40%) for 10 months.