📜 Chiroubles

Chiroubles is a French PDO (protected designation of origin) for still, dry red wine. The single document names one grape variety, Gamay N, and places the whole area in one municipality of the Rhône department, Chiroubles. The designation was registered on 18 September 1973, according to eAmbrosia.

The wines have a minimum natural alcoholic strength of 10.5 % vol. After enrichment, total strength must not exceed 13 % vol, and subtractive enrichment techniques are permitted up to a concentration rate of 10 %. At packaging the wines have no more than 0.4 g/l of malic acid, and finished wines have no more than 3 g/l of fermentable sugar. They must be aged until at least 15 January of the year after the harvest. Wood chips are not permitted.

The maximum yield is 61 hectolitres per hectare. Minimum planting density is 6,000 plants per hectare, with rows 2.10 m apart or less and at least 0.80 m between plants in a row. For mechanisation, rows may be up to 3 m apart if the density is kept. Vines are spur pruned and trained as gobelet, éventail, single or double cordon de Royat, or Charmet, with at most ten buds per plant. Pruning is completed by 15 May, and irrigation is prohibited.

The specification places the area on the eastern sides of the Beaujolais hills, on granite-derived soils at elevations between 260 and 600 metres.