Bâtard-Montrachet is an ''

Appellation d'origine contrôlée An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical boun ...

'' (AOC) and

Grand Cru Cru is a wine term used to indicate a high-quality vineyard or group of vineyards. It is a French word which is traditionally translated as "growth", as is the past participle of the verb "croître" (to grow); it literally means 'grown'. The ...

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

for

white wine White wine is a wine that is Fermentation in winemaking, fermented without skin contact. The wine color, colour can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold. It is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the non-coloured Juice vesicles, ...

from

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

in the

Côte de Beaune The Côte de Beaune area is the southern part of the Côte d'Or, the limestone ridge that is home to the great names of Burgundy wine. The Côte de Beaune starts between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune, and extends southwards for about 25 km ...

subregion of

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

. It is located within the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

s of

Puligny-Montrachet Puligny-Montrachet () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France. In the middle of the Côte de Beaune, it is a well-known appellation of Burgundy wine, containing one of the most famous vineyards in the world, Montrachet. Popu ...

and

Chassagne-Montrachet Chassagne-Montrachet () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It used to be known under the name Chassagne-le-Haut, but the name was changed to Chassagne-Montrachet by a decree on November 27, ...

. K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'' pg 191-195 Workman Publishing 2001 Bâtard-Montrachet borders on the Grand Cru vineyard

Montrachet ''For the restaurant, see Montrachet (restaurant)'' Montrachet (pronounced ''Mon-rashay''; ) is an ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine made of Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. I ...

in the west, on

Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet is an ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine from Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. It is located within the commune of Puligny-Montrachet.K. MacNeil ''T ...

in the east/northeast and on

Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet is an ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine from Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. It is located within the commune of Chassagne-Montrachet.K. MacNeil '' ...

in the south. In terms of the

Côte d'Or Côte is a British cafe chain founded by Richard Caring, Andy Bassadone, Chris Benians and Nick Fiddler in Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross ...

hillside, Bâtard-Montrachet is located below Montrachet, with the

Route des Grands Crus The Route des Grands Crus (roughly, "road of the great wines") is the name of a tourist route situated in Burgundy, France. The approximately 60-kilometre route runs along the foot of the Côte d'Or escarpment, from Dijon in the north to Santen ...

running between the two vineyards. The AOC was created in 1937.

Etymology

The name derives from the

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

legend that the Lord of Puligny divided his land between his eldest son (''le chevalier'', the knight), his daughters (''les pucelles'', the maidens) and his

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...

son (''le bâtard'', the bastard) : Chevalier, Bâtard and Les Pucelles became three different plots within the commune of

Production

In 2008, of vineyard surface was in production within the AOC, and 476 hectoliters of wine were produced, corresponding to just over 63,000 bottles.

AOC regulations

The only

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

variety allowed per AOC regulations for Bâtard-Montrachet is

. The allowed base yield is 40 hectoliters per

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

, and the minimum grape maturity is 11.5%

potential alcohol Must weight is a measure of the amount of sugar in grape juice (must) and, hence, indicates the amount of alcohol that could be produced if it is all fermented to alcohol, rather than left as residual sugar.AOC regulations, last updated 1998
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batard-Montrachet Burgundy (historical region) AOCs

Etymology

Production

AOC regulations

See also

References