Viré-Clessé
Viré-Clessé is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for white wine in the Mâconnais subregion in Burgundy in central France, located in the communes of Clessé, Laizé, Montbellet and Viré.[1] Viré-Clessé has Chardonnay as the only allowed grape variety.[2] There are no Premier Cru vineyards within the AOC. The AOC was created in 1999, when this area was upgraded to be a communal-level appellation of its own ("a separate Mâconnais cru" similar to e.g. Pouilly-Fuissé) rather than being part of the subregional Mâcon AOC, which covers a much larger area. Before the Viré-Clessé AOC was created, the wines could be labelled Mâcon-Vire or Mâcon-Clessé.
The Viré-Clessé AOC is located in the northern part of the Mâconnais subregion, north of the town of Mâcon, in the direction of the Côte Chalonnaise subregion.
Production
[edit]In 2008, 390.57 hectares (965.1 acres) of vineyard surface was in production for Viré-Clessé AOC, and 21,925 hectoliter of wine was produced,[3] corresponding to just over 2.9 million bottles of white wine.
AOC regulations
[edit]The AOC regulations only allow Chardonnay to be used. The allowed base yield is 55 hectoliter per hectare and the grapes must reach a maturity of at least 11.0 per cent potential alcohol.[2] The specifications of the appellation were revised by Decree 2011-1794 of 5 December 2011.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ BIVB: Viré-Clessé Archived 2012-03-09 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on November 23, 2009
- ^ a b "AOC regulations for Viré-Clessé, last updated 1999" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
- ^ BIVB: Les Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée de Bourgogne, accessed on November 23, 2009
- ^ "Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée VIRÉ-CLESSÉ" (PDF). Bourgogne Wine Board. 2011-12-05. Retrieved 2013-02-10.