French, particularly Burgundian, term for a specific vineyard site defined by, as the name suggests, all of its climatological as well as geographical characteristics, otherwise known as terroir. Thus the Burgundian grower uses the word climat interchangeably with ‘vineyard’. A climat is generally but not always smaller than a specific appellation. The term climat may for example be used to refer to a grand cru such as Richebourg. To further complicate matters, most appellations have over the centuries been subdivided into small parcels, each with its own traditional name, known by local geographers as a lieu-dit.
