Côte d'Or (escarpment)

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The Côte d'Or is a limestone escarpment in Burgundy, France. It forms the western side of the middle course of the valley of the Saône. On its lower slopes are produced the principal Burgundy wines. Southward from Dijon, the main town of the Côte-d'Or département, are to be found such names as Gevrey-Chambertin, Clos-de-Vougeot, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune.

1 Geology
2 Wine production
3 Tourism
4 See also

[edit] Geology

If the Paris hydrological and geological basin is viewed as a saucer with Paris at its centre, the Côte d'Or may be seen as a segment of its south-eastern rim; the counterpart of the chalk cliffs of the Pays de Caux, on the English Channel coast to the north-west. The River Seine rises near the Côte d'Or and enters the sea near the Pays de Caux, having passed through Paris.

The Côte d'Or scarp arises where a broad, relatively shallow graben has formed as a result of an interaction between the forces raising the alpine ridges and the Massif Central. The Jurassic limestone contributes the chemically basic component of the mixture of requirements for a good vineyard, while the scarp provides the drainage and aspect.

At the Côte d'Or, the middle and upper Jurassic rocks overlook the Oligocene, Pliocene and Quaternary rocks of the plain through which the Saône flows southward towards the Mediterranean Sea. The côte therefore forms part of the watershed between northern and southern Europe. On the far side of the plain, the Jura rises. Its rocks too are largely Jurassic as might be expected from the fact that the period in which the rocks were formed was named after these mountains.

Near Nuits-Saint-Georges, part of the middle Jurassic limestone has been metamorphosed into marble. The metamorphism seems to have arisen from the volcanic disturbances in the already existing (Variscan) Massif Central, set off by the Alpine orogeny. The massif Centale is represented locally by its northern extension, the Morvan, which lies between Nevers and the Côte d'Or.

There is a vein of the marble, called Pierre de Comblanchien extending from the village of Comblanchien, just south of Nuits-Saint-Georges, which has made the reputations of the quarries of the region. The quarries lie in the Côte overlooking Route Nationale 74, north and south of the village. The stone, by the variety of its shades of colour, the pink of bindweed (Convolvulus) and beige and its veining harmonizes with any decorative style. It is not susceptible to frost damage, is fine-grained and capable of accepting a polish.