Brouilly
The French wine-growing region Brouilly is one of the ten Cru des Beaujolais . The area received on October 19, 1936 the status of an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC for short). The 1315 hectares of vineyards are in the communal areas of Odenas , Saint-Lager , Cercié , Quincié-en-Beaujolais , Saint-Étienne-la-Varenne and Charentay in the Rhône department . Brouilly is thus the largest appellation of Beaujolais cru in terms of area.
This is where red wines are made from the Gamay grape variety , which are more durable than most of the Beaujolais wines. The wines are made with the traditional carbon dioxide maceration. This method of winemaking is tedious and unsuitable for making Beaujolais Nouveau, but it does produce significantly better wines.
The wine is ready to drink after 3 to 4 years of storage, but under optimal conditions it can also be stored for 10 years.
The vineyards lie at the foot of the 484 meter high Mont Brouilly and completely enclose it. Every Saturday of the last weekend in August, the residents of the growing area make a pilgrimage to a chapel on the top of the hill and offer bread , wine and salt .
The soil structure of the zone ranges from granite on the west side to slate in the center to terraces with alluvial sand in the east. The growing area encloses the Côte de Brouilly area. For a bottle of Brouilly you usually have to spend 5 to 8 € (as of 2006).
The other Beaujolais cru wines are Chénas , Chiroubles , Côte de Brouilly , Fleurie , Juliénas , Moulin à Vent , Morgon , Régnié and Saint-Amour .
literature
- Jancis Robinson : The Oxford Wine Lexicon . 3. Edition. Gräfe and Unzer Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8338-0691-9 .
- Pierre Galet : Cépages et Vignobles de France . 1st edition. Lavoisier Publishing House, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-7430-0585-8 .
- Benoît France (ed.): Grand Atlas des Vignobles de France . 1st edition. Solar publishing house, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-263-03242-8 .