Saint-Bris
Styles
Principal grape varieties
Terroir
Natural factors
- Cuesta known as the "Côte des Bars": a plateau of Calcaire du Barrois overlying a slope of Marnes à Exogyra virgula (Kimmeridgian)
- Soils predominantly very calcareous clay, well-drained on marly slopes; locally shallow and very stony along plateau edges
- Cool oceanic climate: 650 mm of rainfall per year, mean annual temperature 10.8 °C, with spring frost risk
- Vines at 150–300 m elevation, on west/northwest- to north-facing slopes and on plateaux with little shelter from the wind (via Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Complex relief of small valleys cutting numerous slopes with varied aspects, with colluvium blanketing the underlying marls
Human factors
- Excluded from the Burgundian AOCs in 1936, the Sauvignon-based wines gained VDQS status in 1974, then AOC "Saint-Bris" on 10 January 2003.
Product characteristics
- Golden in appearance with pale green highlights; mineral nose (flint, gunflint) with citrus, blackcurrant leaf, and white flowers. (via Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Fresh and zesty in youth (green apple, citrus); mineral complexity develops after a few years of cellaring.
Terroir / wine link
- North- and west-facing marly slopes combined with calcareous plateau edges impart freshness and mineral complexity to the wines.
Facts drawn from the cahier's terroir-link section (Lien au terroir) by automatic interpretation — see the source.