Lieu-dit · Mercurey
Lès Puillets
Lès Puillets is a lieu-dit in Mercurey, Côte Chalonnaise, Burgundy, whose largest tier is premier cru. It lies within the official cru Les Puillets.
8.61 ha
delimited
298 m
elevation
10.9 h
sun at harvest
Open on the mapWith the boundary, the plots, the sun through the year and the bedrock.
In figures
| Level | Premier Cruinao-aoc-viticoles-bulk (c. 4 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Official cru | Les Puillets |
| Village | Mercurey |
| Region | Côte Chalonnaise, Burgundy |
| Delimited | 8.61 hainao-aoc-viticoles-bulk (c. 4 September 2026) · cadastre-etalab (4 September 2026) |
| Planted | 8.43 hacadastre-etalab (4 September 2026) · ign-bdtopo-vigne (5 September 2026) · ign-rpg-2024 (5 September 2026) |
| Parcels | 6 |
| Grape variety | pinot noir also permitted: chardonnay, pinot grisinao-cahiers-des-charges (7 September 2026) · dgddi-superficies-produits (7 September 2026) · franceagrimer-observatoire-viticulture (7 September 2026) |
| Organic | 99%agence-bio-cartobio (c. 5 September 2026) · agence-bio-operateurs (5 September 2026) |
Place in the village
Among the 26 named plots ranked premier cru in Mercurey, from high to low:
Position
298 m
elevation
15.9%
steep
ESE
east-southeast
upper
even slope
| Elevation | 298 m 277 to 314 mign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Daytime temperature | −0.23 °C by day, relative to the village centre at 268 m, ± 0.03 °Cmeteo-france-quotidiennes (6 September 2026) · meteo-france-postes (6 September 2026) · meteo-france-lsh (6 September 2026) · ign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
| Slope | 15.9% 9.1°ign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
| Aspect | east-southeast 113°ign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
| On the slope | 50% upper slope, on an even plane, 169 m drains onto itign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
Bedrock
- 19%Argovien marl and marly limestone 159.5–157.5 million years
- 81%Oolitic limestone, marl and chailles (late Bathonian to Callovian) 165.5–161.5 million years
Not a borehole: ordered by age, thickness by share of surface.
In the glass. Plots where the decalcified clay with chailles dominates are often described as fresher and firmer. This is an observation from practice, probably via the lower pH and the stony top layer, not a measured relationship. (weak indication)
A mixed sequence of oolitic limestone, marl bands and chailles, siliceous nodules that grew in the lime mud during hardening. Chailles resemble flint but are less pure and more porous, with more lime in the siliceous mass. Where the limestone has dissolved at the surface, a decalcified clay remains in which the insoluble chailles lie loose; about 165.5 to 161.5 million years old.
For the vine. Mixed behaviour: the oolite drains readily, the marl bands retain water and the chailles form a stony, fast-warming top layer. Where the decalcified clay with chailles dominates, the soil is more acidic and poorer in active lime, which lowers the chlorosis risk. Rooting depth varies greatly over a few metres, depending on where a marl band lies.
Occurs on the plateaus and upper slopes of the Côte and in the Hautes-Côtes, where the decalcified clay with chailles lies at the surface.
BRGM geological map at 1:50,000. It tells vineyards apart, not plots within a vineyard. The link between rock and taste is indirect: soil depth, water and warmth do the work, and slope, vine age and the cellar do the rest. Units on that map: j3c-4, j5b.
brgm-bdcharm50 (4 September 2026)Sun and horizon
07:46
above the hill
18:42
behind the hill
10.9 h
sun at harvest
0.5 h
lost to the hill
Grey: sun up, but behind the hill or the vineyard's own slope.
Around harvest the sun rises here at 07:46 above the hill and disappears at 18:42 behind the hill: 10.9 hours of direct sun on a clear day. The ridge reaches 14.5° above the horizon to the north-northwest.
| Irradiation | +0.8% versus flat land 1,063 kWh/m² from April to October, 41% of it diffuseunder the average cloudiness of 2005 to 2023 (PVGIS-SARAH3, EU JRC); direct, diffuse and reflected light togetherign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) · ign-lidarhd-mnh (6 September 2026) · ign-bdforet-v2 (5 September 2026) · jrc-pvgis-sarah3 (10 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Open sky | 99.1% of the sky the slope itself sees; the surrounding relief blocks the restign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) · ign-lidarhd-mnh (6 September 2026) · ign-bdforet-v2 (5 September 2026) |
Three reference days and the caveat
| rise | set | sun | day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 June | 06:29 | 20:18 | 13.8 h | 15.9 h |
| 20 September | 07:46 | 18:42 | 10.9 h | 12.3 h |
| 21 December | 08:25 | 16:16 | 7.8 h | 8.5 h |
Computed from the IGN elevation model at 5 m: horizon in 36 directions up to six kilometres, sun position per minute, angle of incidence on the mean slope. Clear sky, with the tree canopy from the IGN forest inventory as a raised horizon (15 m closed forest, 5 m heath, trees within 60 m ignored), 33% of the far field is forest (BD Forêt), no buildings.
Air and cold
43 m
above the lowest point
drains far away
cold air
little inflow
1.2 ha flows past
| Cold air | 43 m high on the slope, cold air drains far awayign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Cold air passing through | 1.2 ha little inflow, mean over the polygon 0.13 haign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
Planting
ESE-WNW
down the slope
1.02 m
between the rows
1%
vineyard in 1950
| Rows | ESE-WNW (106°) down the slope (6°), every 1.02 m, all rows parallelmeasured over 8.4 of 8.4 ha plantedign-bdortho (5 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Vineyard in 1950 | 1% planted since: 7.27 ha, rows then ran 87° differentlyassessed over 7.3 ha on the 1950-1965 aerial photographign-photos-historiques-1950-1965 (6 September 2026) |
Climate over time
station LA ROCHEPOT, 417 m, 13.7 km away
growing season, April to October: 1951-1980: 14.1 °C, 1991-2020: 15.2 °C
Huglin index: 1951-1980: 1,528, 1991-2020: 1,726
last spring frost: 1951-1980: day 115, 1991-2020: day 108
raw daily series, not corrected for station breaks
Who owns land here
8.61 ha of 8.61 ha delimited is registered to a legal entity
- CHATEAU DE SANTENAY84%
- GFA DESFONTAINE14%
- ASSOCIATION FONCIERE DE MERCUREY1%
- 7.27 ha CHATEAU DE SANTENAY SCEA · wine business
- 1.24 ha GFA DESFONTAINE GFA · land company
- 0.10 ha ASSOCIATION FONCIERE DE MERCUREY AFR · other
Share of the delimited hectares. Only legal entities are public in France; everything else stays unnamed. From the public register of legal entities (DGFiP), as of 1 January 2025. The owner is not always the one who works the vineyard: tenancy is common.
Nearby lieux-dits
- Lès Vaux Village · 200 m
- Lès Doués Village · 250 m
- Lès Saumonts Premier Cru · 350 m
- Lès Cheneaults Village · 500 m
- Le Bois Cassien Village · 550 m
- Lès Bosebuts Village · 600 m
- Lès Champs Michaux Regional · 600 m
- Le Closeau Village · 600 m
In the same village, measured between label points. That does not say which ones border each other; the map shows that.
Where each figure comes from
- Classification
- The INAO delimitation per denomination, cut against the cadastral parcel. Only the INAO's own plans are legally binding; this map is informational.
- Area
- Computed on the sphere from longitude and latitude (turf.area), not in Lambert-93. For an appellation this is the union of the INAO polygons across commune boundaries, measured on the unclosed geometry; the fifteen metres used to close the outline for the map are not counted. For a climat it is the union of the cadastral lieu-dit polygons with that name.
- Planted
- Parcel area times vineyard cover, where cover comes from the IGN vegetation layer supplemented by the agricultural declaration. Checked against the customs harvest declarations: median deviation 5.1 per cent over a hundred appellations.
- Elevation
- Mean of the elevation-model cells whose centre falls inside the polygon, on a 5 m grid.
- Slope
- Per-cell slope from the elevation model using Horn's method, then averaged over the cells in the polygon.
- Aspect
- Vector mean of the per-cell aspect. A plain average would turn north-east and north-west into south.
- Sun at harvest
- Hours of direct sun on 20 September under a clear sky, with the horizon in 36 directions out to six kilometres and the height of woods and buildings on top of it. Canopy height is measured where LiDAR HD covers the area and estimated from BD Forêt where it does not; the panel states which of the two was used.
- Grape variety by appellation
- Per appellation and colour the permitted varieties from the approved cahier des charges; per appellation and tier the declared hectares of white and red from the customs harvest declaration (product codes). One colour permitted: the main variety of that colour. Two colours: from 85 percent of the hectares that colour applies, in between it is called mixed. Champagne: the dominant variety from the planted hectares per variety per commune from FranceAgriMer. Per polygon the dominant variety of its parts by area. Derived, not measured: the variety per plot exists only in the customs vineyard register, which is not public. In a two-colour appellation a single plot may carry the other variety. Customs withhold small appellations (statistical secrecy), in which case the split is missing.
- Bedrock
- The geological unit covering the largest share of the polygon, from the 1:50,000 geological map. At 1:50,000 the map separates one climat from another, but not what varies inside a climat.
- Organic
- Share of the area certified organic or in conversion, from the CartoBio plot register.