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Vineyards
The Mâcon Bussières vineyard is located less than 1
km south of the village of Bussières on a gentle, southern facing
slope that leads down to a the small stream la petite Crosne. The vineyard
is directly north of the famous Roche de Vergisson, a rocky crag
that marks the northern end of the Pouilly Fuissé. The chardonnay
vines are spaced about 1 meter apart and trained in the Cordon de Royat
method. The vines are lovingly managed in a very natural manner by a husband
and wife team. Manure is the only fertilizer used.
Terroir The village
of Bussières is located in the southern Mâconnais region
roughly 15 km west of Mâcon. The region marks the end of the limestone
soil typical of Burgundy. The bedrock is composed of Jurassic strata in
the north, which transitions to Hercynian bedrock in the south. The rocky
crags of Vergisson and the Solutré are inspiring examples of very
erosion resistant Jurassic strata. The climate is temperate with the exception
of the very cold February and a typical hot July and August. There is
an average annual rainfall of 800mm.
The Mâconnais
Like all of Burgundy, wine has long been an integral and shaping force
in the history of the Mâconnais. The first written mention of Mâconnais
wines was by the Roman poet Ausonius (310 - 390 A.D.) who resided in Bordeaux
but wrote about wine regions as far away as Germany. Hundreds of years
later, in 910, the Abbey of Cluney, which Pope Urban II called the light
of the world, was founded and began producing wine. Cluney, over the next
400 years, became the largest and most powerful Abbey in Europe and produced
large amounts of wine from the Mâconnais, as well as Gevrey-Chambertin
further north in Burgundy.
While the wines of the monks at Cluney enjoyed local fame it was not
until the 17th century that wines form the Mâconnais gained wider
recognition when an industrious local grower, Claude Brosee, decided to
take his wine to the king. He loaded two casks onto a cart and traveled
for 33 days, braving poor roads and highwaymen until he arrived at the
court of Versailles where he presented his wine to King Louis XIV. King
Louis was so impressed he declared the Mâconnais wine a better quality
than the Loire wines he had been drinking! Throughout the 1600's the wines
were regularly transported to Paris and after the French Revolution wines
were shipped as far away as Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Today,
wines from the Mâconnais receive worldwide recognition.
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