Château-Chalon is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

 for wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

s made in the Jura wine

Jura wine

Jura wine, is French wine produced in the Jura département. Located between Burgundy and Switzerland, this cool climate wine region produces wines with some similarity to Burgundy and Swiss wine. Jura wines are distinctive and unusual wines, the most famous being vin jaune, which is made by a...

 region of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, around the village of Château-Chalon

Château-Chalon

Château-Chalon is a commune in the Jura department in Franche-Comté in eastern France.-References:*...

. Only white wines from the Savagnin

Savagnin

Savagnin or Savagnin Blanc is a variety of white wine grape with green-skinned berries. It is mostly grown in the Jura region of France, where it is made into the famous vin jaune and vin de paille.-History:...

 grape

Grape

A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

 made in the vin jaune

Vin jaune

Vin jaune is a special and characteristic type of white wine made in the Jura wine region in eastern France. It is similar to dry fino Sherry and gets its character from being matured in a barrel under a film of yeast, known as the voile, on the wine's surface...

("yellow wine") style can be made using this appellation. However, the Château-Chalon wines are not explicitly labeled as vin jaune. It is bottled

Wine bottle

A wine bottle is a bottle used for holding wine, generally made of glass. Some wines are fermented in the bottle, others are bottled only after fermentation. They come in a large variety of sizes, several named for Biblical kings and other figures. The standard bottle contains 750 ml,...

 in the traditional bottle called clavelin that is of a peculiar shape and with a capacity of 62 cl, which is, according to local legend, the amount left of a litre of wine after aging in cask for six years and three months - the legal minimum for Chateau Chalon. Once bottled, the wine is of great longevity, and can age for several decades.

Climate and geography

Château-Chalon is located in hilly terrain in the eastern French wine

French wine

French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

 region of Jura. The area has a continental climate, which includes very cold winters. The climate during harvest time

Harvest (wine)

The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to...

 is normally dry enough to be able to pick the grapes at a late harvest stage

Late harvest wine

Late harvest is a term applied to wines made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Late harvest is usually an indication of a sweet dessert wine, such as late harvest Riesling. Late harvest grapes are often more similar to raisins, but have been naturally dehydrated while on the vine...

, normally in late October. The vineyard soils are composed of limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 marl

Marl

Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...

.

Wine production

The Château-Chalon AOC is dedicated exclusively to the production of vin jaune wine. There are other appellation

Appellation

An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown; other types of food often have appellations as well...

s within Jura that are permitted to produce AOC vin jaune, most notably the Côtes du Jura AOC, but Château-Chalon has specific regulations that are unique to this AOC. To begin with, the grapes must be harvested at brix

Brix

Degrees Brix is the sugar content of an aqueous solution.One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by weight . If the solution contains dissolved solids other than pure sucrose, then the °Bx is only approximate the...

 levels that allow for a potential alcohol content of at least 12% in the finished wine; other regions will allow a minimum of 11.5%. While the grapes are harvested late, they are never botrytized, unlike other well known late harvest French wines such as Sauternes

Sauternes (wine)

Sauternes is a French sweet wine from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux. Sauternes is made from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. This causes the grapes to become partially raisined,...

. After fermentation

Fermentation (wine)

The process of fermentation in wine turns grape juice into an alcoholic beverage. During fermentation, yeast interact with sugars in the juice to create ethanol, commonly known as ethyl alcohol, and carbon dioxide...

 the wine must be stored for at least six years and three months prior to bottling. The majority of time is spent in wood casks that are only partially filled, allowing for a film of yeast

Yeast

Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...

, known as the voile or "veil", to develop across the surface. This voile yeast is similar to the benevolent flor

Flor

Flor is a winemaking term referring to a film of yeast on the surface of wine and which is important in the manufacture of certain styles of sherry. The flor is formed naturally under certain winemaking conditions, from indigenous yeasts found in the region of Andalucía in southern Spain...

yeast that is used in sherry

Sherry

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....

 production, and vin jaune shares some similarities in styles to sherry, though vin jaune is not fortified

Fortified wine

Fortified wine is wine to which a distilled beverage has been added. Fortified wine is distinguished from spirits made from wine in that spirits are produced by means of distillation, while fortified wine is simply wine that has had a spirit added to it...

.

The producers of Château-Chalon are very particular about quality and will sacrifice an entire year's production, not making any wine, if the weather of a particular vintage

Vintage

Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...

 was not favorable. In good years, production will average around 2000 hectoliters (52,835 gallons).

Wine style

The vin jaune wine of Château-Chalon is known for its nutty flavors and aromas, that can develop additional curry

Curry

Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...

 notes as the wines ages due to presence of sotolon

Sotolon

Sotolon is a lactone and an extremely powerful aroma compound, with the typical smell of fenugreek or curry at high concentrations and maple syrup, caramel, or burnt sugar at lower concentrations. Sotolon is the major aroma and flavor component of fenugreek seed and lovage, and is one of several...

. The wine's yellow color ranges from pale to deep gold. The wines are often paired

Wine and food matching

Wine and food matching is the process of pairing food dishes with wine to enhance the dining experience. In many cultures, wine has had a long history of being a staple at the dinner table and in some ways both the winemaking and culinary traditions of a region will have evolved together over the...

 with the local AOC designated chicken

Chicken (food)

Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world, and is prepared as food in a wide variety of ways, varying by region and culture.- History :...

 from the nearby town of Bresse

Bresse

Bresse is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne , which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located...

.