Mâcon-Mancey
The Wines
White wines
The whites are a lovely light gold color with hints of silver. They have a very expressive nose with fresh fruit like apricot, apple, quince, along with blossom like mock orange, sometimes with a touch of rose. In the mouth, Mâcon-Mancey whites demonstrate a balanced maturity, accompanied by a rigorous, forthright finish.
Red wines
In around 1925, Albert Thibaudet, a literary critic from Tournus, noted that the transition between the worlds of Pinot Noir and Gamay occurred in the shadow of the abbatial church of Saint-Philibert. Faithful to this tradition, Mâcon-Mancey reds are an intense, deep garnet color, promising good body. At first, the nose is complex, giving way to aromas of chives, peony, and fruit preserved in eau-de-vie. In the mouth, they are fleshy, but with a crispness on the length.
Colors
Production
mâcon-Mancey
An additional geographical denomination that is part of the Régionale Mâcon appellation in the Mâconnais.
According to the 2005 specifications rules, the name Mâcon-Mancey refers to white, red, and rosé wines grown within a defined area in the villages of Boyer, La-Chapelle-sous-Brançion, Etrigny, Jugy, Laives, Mancey, Montceaux-Ragny, Nanton, Royer, Sennecey-le-Grand, Vers, and Tournus.
Situation
Between the hills of the Grosne valley to the west and the more eastern of the Mâconnais hills overlooking the valley of the Saône in Tournus, the vines of Mâcon-Mancey are located to the north, at the edge of the Chalon plain.
The land around Tournus has been densely populated since Neolithic times. Its proximity to the Saône, an axis of civilization, and to the Abbey of Saint-Philibert, a place of exchange, were key factors in its agricultural development. “Le Tournus” was one of four names mentioned in the edict of Charles VI in 1415, along with the Dijonnais, the Beaunois, and the Mâconnais, to describe the origins of those Bourgogne wines sold in the kingdom.
This prosperity, mainly related to red wines, was brutally halted in the 19th century. After the Beaujolais region, the phylloxera insect then moved into the Mâconnais, attacking vines in Mancey in the lieu-dit of Les Boyeaux, in June 1875. It was this village that organized the fight back and then the reconstruction of the vineyards, on the initiative of its dynamic mayor, Charles Millot.
Terroir
Level 1
From the valley of the Grison to the west, to the foothills around Tournus to the east, the vines are planted at altitudes varying from 250 to 320 meters above sea level. Protected to the west by the woods of Mancey that rise up to 501 meters above sea level at the Roche d’Aujoux, this terroir is at the crossroads of the milder temperatures of the Saône Valley and the more contrasting continental climate of the central Mâconnais.
Level 2
To the north of the longest range in the Mâconnais, the vines between Royer and Mancey make up the heart of the appellation. The east- and west-facing slopes offer alternating beds of limestone and clay from the Middle and Upper Jurassic, often rich in iron and ideal for growing the Gamay grape – “Red earth is earth for reds,” as the old folk used to say. The Chardonnay grape is mainly found on Kimmeridgean limestone dating back 146 million years, and crinoidal limestone, used to erect the drystone cabins found at the Roy Guillaume farm.