Bouzeron

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The territory forms a small dry valley opening to the north-east, with slopes exposed to the east and west at elevations between 250 and 350 metres.
• The substrates are mainly Oxfordian marls — that is, Upper Jurassic — with Middle Jurassic limestones locally present at the base of the slopes, covered by calcareous scree.
• The soils are generally highly calcareous, shallow, and very stony; the delimited parcels never extend to the calcareous ridges, where soils are skeletal.
• The climate is a degraded oceanic type subject to southern and continental influences, with southerly mildness penetrating via the Saône valley and moderating the oceanic influences.
• The valley's general opening to the north-east accentuates continental influences and generates a cool mesoclimate specific to this part of the Côte chalonnaise.

• Claude Courtépée mentions the white wines of Bouzeron in his Description générale et particulière du Duché de Bourgogne in 1775, these wines apparently enjoying a flattering reputation as early as the eighteenth century.
• The Aligoté variety, traditionally planted on the slopes of Burgundy as it is well suited to cool sites, became during the twentieth century the essential grape variety for the white wines of Bouzeron.
• The appellation Bourgogne aligoté has existed since 1936, and the additional geographical designation Bouzeron was authorised by decree of 7 March 1979, before recognition as the AOC Bouzeron by decree of 17 February 1998.

• Hillside sites, which are low-yielding, produce wines that are more structured and aromatic than those from the lower slopes, with the valley's northerly orientation generating a cool mesoclimate from which the Aligoté variety benefits particularly.
• The aromatic notes of dried fruit and the minerality present in the wines result from the vines being planted over marly subsoils.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in France

Sources

• Product specification (BO Agri, PDF)
• Official INAO text (show_texte)
• INAO product entry
• Official trade body site — BIVB