Burgundy Wine - Production

Production

In 2003, the Burgundy vineyards (including Chablis but excluding Beaujolais) covered a total of 28,530 hectares (70,500 acres). Côte d'Or as a whole, including Hautes Côtes de Beaune and Hautes Côtes de Nuits, covered 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres), of which the heartland of Côte de Nuits covered 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) and Côte de Beaune 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres).

In 2000, Burgundy had a total of 3 200 wine domaines (compared to 50 in the early 19th century), of which 520 were in the department of Yonne, 1 100 in Côte-d'Or and 1 570 in Saône-et-Loir. Generally, the small growers sell their grapes to larger producers, merchants called négociants, who blend and bottle the wine. The roughly 115 négociants who produce the majority of the wine only control around 8% of the area. Individual growers have around 67% of the area, but produce and market only around 25% of the wine. Some small wineries produce only 100-200 cases/year, while many producers make a few thousand cases/year. Grower/producer-made wines can be identified by the terms Mis en bouteille au domaine, Mis au domaine, or Mis en bouteille à la propriété. The largest producer is Maison Louis Latour in Beaune with 350,000 cases/year. The négociants may use the term Mis en bouteille dans nos caves (bottled in our cellars), but are not entitled to use the estate-bottled designation of the grower/producers. Most négociants tend to use the term Mis en bouteille par... (bottled by...).