Montreuil (AFP)

The vineyards of Chablis, Dijonais and Chatillonais will ultimately be maintained in the AOC Burgundy wine, according to the winegrowers and elected officials who met Thursday with officials of the National Institute of Designations and Origins (Inao), on the sidelines of a manifestation of Burgundy winegrowers.

"Chablis, Dijonnais and Chatillonais will not be excluded from AOC Bourgogne, it was the president of the national committee of the institute, Christian Paly, who told our delegation of elected officials and wine-growers on Thursday morning ", said Patrick Gendraud, president of the Yonne departmental council (LR) and former mayor of Chablis, to AFP.

"I will not be the president who will leave Chablis of Burgundy" confirmed Mr. Paly in a press release issued at the same time by the organization which manages agricultural appellations in France.

Several hundred Burgundian wine-growers demonstrated Thursday in Montreuil (east of Paris) in front of the headquarters of Inao against a project to revise the geographical division of the AOC, which provided in particular for "the amputation" of "entire" sectors of Burgundy history "like Chablis.

The 64 municipalities concerned represented 7,000 hectares of the AOC Bourgogne production area, where wine is often, it is true, produced under other appellations than that of Burgundy (chablis or crémant for example).

The national council, which was to examine the project, had removed it in extremis Wednesday evening from its agenda before the rise of local opposition. A new council is scheduled for June, said a wine source.

However, the problems are far from all resolved, Inao also having to find a solution to the disputes between Bourguignons and Beaujolais, in the south of the Burgundy area, where some 85 communes of Beaujolais are considered, since 1937, to be part of the Burgundy area.

The revision project planned to maintain them, which is not to the taste of Burgundy winegrowers.

"We want to gather the clues illustrating what a Burgundy wine is, it is not only a grape variety of pinot noir or chardonnay on a clay soil, they are also know-how, traditions, we want that the "Inao takes everything into account" said Thiebault Huber, president of the Confederation of appellations and winegrowers of Burgundy (CAVB).

"If the 85 municipalities of Beaujolais should all have the possibility of producing under the appellation Burgundy, or some 10,000 hectares of vines, this could explode the economic model of our plantations" argued Bruno Verret, president of the defense organization and management of Burgundy wines.

Nevertheless, "this is not a war against Beaujolais, it is a war with the institute which does not hear us and does not speak to us before initiating a review of the routes delimiting the authorized production areas that we had asked ourselves, "said Huber.

The demonstrating winemakers held up panels of each regional cru, and others denouncing an "identity crisis" in Burgundy. They had set up a huge banquet table in the street in front of the Inao and were to leave in the afternoon.

© 2020 AFP