Bâtard-Montrachet is an ''

Appellation d'origine contrôlée In France, the ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (, ; abbr. AOC ) is a label that identifies an agricultural product whose stages of production and processing are carried out in a defined geographical area – the ''terroir'' – and using ...

'' (AOC) and Grand Cru

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

for

white wine White wine is a wine that is Fermentation in winemaking, fermented without undergoing the process of Maceration (wine), maceration, which involves prolonged contact between the juice with the grape skins, seeds, and pulp. The wine color, colou ...

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 France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...

in the

Côte de Beaune The Côte de Beaune area is the southern part of the Côte d'Or (escarpment), Côte d'Or, the limestone ridge that is home to the great names of Burgundy wine. The Côte de Beaune (France) starts between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune, and exten ...

subregion of

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') 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. ...

. It is located within the communes of Puligny-Montrachet 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 2 ...

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

Montrachet 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. It straddles the border between the two communes ...

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 ...

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 Restaurants Group Limited, trading as Côte (formerly Côte Brasserie), stylised as CÔTE is a French-style British restaurant chain founded by Richard Caring, Andy Bassadone, Chris Benians and Nick Fiddler in Wimbledon, London Wimbl ...

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 Sa ...

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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

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 Puligny-Montrachet.

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 approximately 8,0 ...

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), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

, 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.List of Burgundy Grand Crus Grand cru (wine), Grand Cru (great growth) is the highest level in the vineyard classification of Burgundy wine, Burgundy. There are a total of of Grand Cru vineyards—approximately 2% of Burgundy's of vineyards (excluding Beaujolais wine, Beauj ...

References

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