Lieu-dit · Saulchery
Ru Dauphin
Ru Dauphin is a lieu-dit in Saulchery, Vallée de la Marne, Champagne, whose largest tier is champagne.
2.95 ha
delimited
95 m
elevation
10.8 h
sun at harvest
Open on the mapWith the boundary, the plots, the sun through the year and the bedrock.
In figures
| Level | Champagneinao-aoc-viticoles-bulk (not in this commune) |
|---|---|
| Village | Saulchery |
| Region | Vallée de la Marne, Champagne |
| Delimited | 2.95 hainao-aoc-viticoles-bulk (not in this commune) · cadastre-etalab (4 September 2026) |
| Planted | 2.73 hacadastre-etalab (4 September 2026) · ign-bdtopo-vigne (4 September 2026) · ign-rpg-2024 (5 September 2026) |
| Parcels | 19 |
| Grape variety | meunier 79 %, chardonnay 11 %, pinot noir 9 % also permitted: arbane, petit meslier, pinot blanc, pinot grisinao-cahiers-des-charges (7 September 2026) · dgddi-superficies-produits (7 September 2026) · franceagrimer-observatoire-viticulture (7 September 2026) |
| Organic | 0%agence-bio-cartobio (c. 5 September 2026) · agence-bio-operateurs (5 September 2026) |
Place in the village
Among the 43 named plots ranked champagne in Saulchery, from high to low:
Position
95 m
elevation
13.4%
steep
W
west
mid-slope
concave fold
| Elevation | 95 m 83 to 102 mign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Slope | 13.4% 7.6°ign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
| Aspect | west 269°ign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
| On the slope | 27% mid slope, in a concave hollow, 501 m drains onto itign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
Bedrock
- 100%Lutetian limestone, undifferentiated 47.8–41.2 million years
In the glass. Tends towards wines with firm acidity; the often-used term chalky structure is a tasting term, not a soil characteristic. Much depends on the thickness of the weathered layer: on shallow soils it quickly tips over into drought stress. (weak indication)
Limestone from the shallow, subtropical sea that covered the Paris Basin in the Middle Eocene, rich in shells and in large single-celled organisms (nummulites). In the centre of the basin this is the building-stone facies calcaire grossier; in Champagne the unit is developed thinner and more marly, in beds with intervening marl and sand layers. Middle Eocene, roughly 47.8 to 41.2 million years old.
For the vine. In this area the Lutetian lies in the middle of the Tertiary sequence of sands, clays and marls; the hard plateau edge is formed by the younger meulière de Brie, not by this limestone. Where the unit outcrops the soil is shallow and quickly dry, and a stony surface warms up faster by day than a fine soil, although the difference in ripening comes first and foremost from aspect and slope angle. The active lime content of the soil is high enough to make chlorosis a real risk; roots follow the fissures between the beds and can therefore still go quite deep.
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: e5.
brgm-bdcharm50 (4 September 2026)Sun and horizon
08:42
above the hill
19:33
behind the hill
10.8 h
sun at harvest
0.6 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 08:42 above the hill and disappears at 19:33 behind the hill: 10.8 hours of direct sun on a clear day. The ridge reaches 11.5° above the horizon to the east-northeast.
| Irradiation | −0.8% versus flat land 982 kWh/m² from April to October, 47% 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 | 99.0% 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 | 07:07 | 21:17 | 14.2 h | 16.2 h |
| 20 September | 08:42 | 19:33 | 10.8 h | 12.3 h |
| 21 December | 09:44 | 16:25 | 6.7 h | 8.2 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), 34% of the far field is forest (BD Forêt), no buildings.
Air and cold
24 m
above the lowest point
drains away
cold air
a gully
2.2 ha flows past
| Cold air | 24 m above the hollow, cold air drains awayign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Cold air passing through | 2.2 ha a gully, mean over the polygon 0.37 haign-rge-alti (5 September 2026) |
Planting
E-W
down the slope
1.03 m
between the rows
100%
vineyard in 1950
| Rows | E-W (92°) down the slope (4°), every 1.03 m, varies by plotmeasured over 2.7 of 2.7 ha plantedign-bdortho (6 September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Vineyard in 1950 | 100%assessed over 2.5 ha on the 1950-1965 aerial photographign-photos-historiques-1950-1965 (6 September 2026) |
The name
- ru
- brook. In Champagne Le Ru is a common prefix for a small watercourse. Water · Frédéric Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française (1881)
This is about the words, not about this plot: the same name can have arisen differently elsewhere.
Who owns land here
0.17 ha of 2.95 ha delimited is registered to a legal entity
- ASS FONCIERE DE SAULCHERY6%
- private individuals or unknown94%
- 0.17 ha ASS FONCIERE DE SAULCHERY AUPM · other
Private individuals or unknown: 2.78 ha.
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
- Les Pierreles Champagne · 100 m
- Les Grattes Pailles Champagne · 200 m
- Les Creusettes Champagne · 250 m
- Les Marterois Champagne · 300 m
- Au-Dessus des Ruelles Champagne · 350 m
- Les Groux Champagne · 400 m
- Les Tournelles Champagne · 450 m
- Les Chapelles Champagne · 450 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.