Bouzeron

One of a kind

Bouzeron is unique in the French world of appellations. This is the only village appellation exclusively for the aligoté grape. The regional appellation of Bourgogne Aligoté covers 299 communes througout three of Burgundy’s four departements; Yonne, Côte d’Or and Saône-et-Loire. The Bouzeron appellation is only a fraction of that. While the vines for Bourgogne Aligoté cover around 1575 hectares the Bouzeron vignoble – spread out across the communes of Bouzeron and Chassey le Camp – is only 44 hectares.

– It was very important for the village when we got the village appellation, says Anne-Sophie Chanzy at Domaine Chanzy in Bouzeron. It meant a lot for the marketing of the wine. From a publicity point of view it was very good for both the wine and the winegrowers in Bouzeron. Now we have a lot of people that come to Bouzeron to taste and discover the wine.

Up until 1997 the wine of the village was bottled and sold under the, from a marketing point of view, less than ideal regional appellation of Bourgogne Aligoté Bouzeron.

– There are five winegrowers in Bouzeron and there are another three or four that have vines in Bouzeron but that are located in Rully or Mercurey, explains Anne-Sophie Chanzy.

Bouzeron is at the very top of the Côte Chalonnaise, bordering on Santenay and the Côte de Beaune, only eight kilometres away from Chassagne-Montrachet. In the past this was Bosérontis Villa. In 872 Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, donated the village to the monks of Saint-Marcel de Chalon-sur-Saône. 13 years later they received additional land from Charles the Fat. In his book ”Le Village de Bouzeron” Auguste Besset mentions that in the 19th century you could still see traces of the monks’ buildings in the climat of ”Le Couvent”.

Related reading on Bergman's Bourgogne:
• Interview with Anne-Sophie Chanzy – Domaine Chanzy

• Next village – Rully
• Previous village – Les Hautes-Côtes

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