Lussac-Saint-Émilion 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 bou ...

'' (AOC) for red wine situated in the

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...

region. The appellation is located on the right bank of the

Garonne The Garonne (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux – ...

and

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is name ...

rivers, about from city of

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

or from the medieval village of

Saint-Émilion Saint-Émilion (; Gascon: ''Sent Milion'') is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. In 2016, it had a population of 1,938. In the heart of the country of ''Libournais'' (the area around Libourne), i ...

. It is one of the so-called "Saint-Émilion satellites" situated around the appellation

Saint-Émilion AOC Saint-Émilion is an ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) for wine in the Bordeaux wine region of France, where it is situated in the Libourne subregion on the right bank of the Dordogne. As a cultural landscape demonstrating a long, liv ...

itself.

Terroir

The

terroir (, ; from ''terre'', "land") is a French term used to describe the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop's specific growth habitat. Collectively, these contex ...

of Lussac is characterized by the diversity of its soils, distributed between the plateaus, the sides of the hills, and small valleys. To the south-east, the slopes are clayey-limestone, similar in nature to those in the Saint-Emilion appellation. To the west, there is an elevated gravel and sandy-gravel plateau, not very wide, and to the north, cold clayey soil or heavy clay is predominant. To the east, the subsoil consists of limestone beds which made excellent quarries for extracting soft building stone. To the north-west, there are a few stone quarries, as well as ferrugineous sand or clay.''Bordeaux And Its Wines'', Ch. Cocks - Ed. Féret

Winemaking

The grape varieties allowed in Lussac-Saint-Émilion are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon,

Malbec Malbec () is a purple grape variety used in making red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark color and robust tannins, and are known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine. In France, plantations of Malbec are n ...

and Merlot.INAO: AOC Lussac-Saint-Emilion appellation regulations
/ref> Merlot usually dominates the blend. The allowed base yield is 45 hectolitres per hectare.

Estates

In Lussac, the wine estates are essentially family-properties. The average size of each would be about . A total of are cultivated by 95 independent vineyard owners and are exploited by members of the Puisseguin-Lussac-Saint-Emilion winemaking cooperative.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lussac-Saint-Emilion Bordeaux AOCs