The villages of Viré and Clessé are situated at about the mid-point between Mâcon – the capital of the Mâconnais district of Burgundy – to the south and the town of Chardonnay to the north. Though wine villages such as Lugny do lie further north, Viré-Clessé is the northernmost of the top-level AOCs within the Mâconnais. Its soils are marly, with high limestone content and a granite-rich base.
Viré-Clessé is a relatively new appellation to Burgundy, created in November 1997 and applying to wines as of the 1998 vintage. This new AOC serves as both a combination and elevation of the Mâcon-Villages level AOCs of Mâcon-Viré and Mâcon-Clessé in recognition of the superior quality potential emanating from the zone.
As should be expected within the hierarchy of the French appellation system, the newly established requirements for Viré-Clessé are more stringent than for the previous zones and for the other “lesser” areas of the Mâcon. Yields are limited to a maximum of 55 hl/ha, whereas Mâcon-Villages guidelines allow up to 70 hl/ha.
Any short list of the best producers in Viré-Clessé must perforce include Domaine André Bonhomme. Though today considered an iconoclast (in the most positive sense), Monsieur Bonhomme was initially considered mad when, in 1957, he decided to step away from contract relationships with the négociants who dominated the Mâconnais wine scene to begin estate bottling his own wines. It was largely upon his work, which included low yields, intensively hands-on farming and fastidious wine making, that the guidelines for the AOC Viré-Clessé were based.
Today, as it was 50 years ago, André farms 10 hectares of vineyards and produces small quantities of some of the most elegant wines of the region.
" Lovely Burgundy, with scents of lime, green apple and hint of white flowers. On the palate,
it combines richness, tension and acidity with a racy sensation of minerality."
