Corton 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

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

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, ...

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 on a hill shared between the three villages of Aloxe-Corton, Pernand-Vergelesses and Ladoix in the

. The appellation covers the lower parts of the Corton hill and includes several subordinate vineyard names, or '' climats'', within the AOC. Because of the size of the AOC and the variability of these ''climats'', it is the rule rather than the exception that the name of the ''climat'' is indicated together with that of the Corton AOC, leading to designations such as Corton Clos du Roi and Corton Les Bressandes. Corton is rare in this aspect, as the 'climat' is seldom used for other Grand Cru appellations in

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 ...

. The AOC was created in 1937. Corton wines are mostly red (around 95 per cent of the total production in the AOC) and made from the

Pinot noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...

grape, however a smaller quantity of white Corton 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 ...

is also produced. Around 500,000 bottles a year are produced from the vines. The Corton appellation itself is the Côte de Beaune's only Grand Cru appellation for red wine, and is the largest Grand Cru of Burgundy.

Production

In 2008, of vineyard surface was in production within the AOC, and 2,984 hectoliter of wine was produced, of which 2,822 hectoliter red and 162 hectoliter white.BIVB: Les Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée de Bourgogne
accessed on October 30, 2009 This corresponds to just under 400,000 bottles, of which just over 21,000 were white Corton.

Producers

As with most Burgundy vineyards, several different producers own parts of the vineyard and produce and sell their own finished wines, or sell their grapes or wines to ''

négociant A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...

-éleveurs'' for

vinification Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and w ...

or bottling and distribution.

Corton, Corton-Charlemagne and Charlemagne

There are three partially overlapping Grand Cru AOCs that cover the vineyards on the Corton hill; Corton for red and white wine,

Corton-Charlemagne Corton-Charlemagne is an '' Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine in Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. It is located in the communes of Aloxe-Corton, Pernand-Vergelesses and Ladoix-Serrigny with C ...

for white wine, and the little used

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

for white wine. Corton-Charlemagne from

grapes mostly originate from the higher parts of the hill. The vineyard surface of these three appellations totalled in 2008. Many vineyard parcels on the hill are allowed to be used either for red Corton or white Corton-Charlemagne.

Climats

The following ''climats'' exist within the Corton AOC: In Aloxe-Corton: In Ladoix-Serrigny: In Pernand-Vergelesses:

References

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Production

Producers

Corton, Corton-Charlemagne and Charlemagne

Climats

See also

References