ABSTRACT
Terroir, first of all. For geologist Robert Lautel, this word, which has no translation in other languages, means the soil considered from the point of view of viticulture. In Burgundy, it is the outcome of a long process which started millions of years ago. In the Triassic and Jurassic eras, the toing 3and froing of shallow seas left the clayey and chalky sediments which are the subsoil of the Cote. Thirty million years before Christ, the upheaval of the Alps created a long strip of land separating Bresse from the Morvan and the Burgundy plateaux. A succession of hillsides appeared along each fault line, followed by the erosion of the upper part and the transport of material toward the lower part.
