After seven years of relentless scientific and historical research, Burgundy is on the cusp of being recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to The Daily Beast.
Of course, gaining UNESCO’s recognition is an incredibly difficult feat. The organization defines World Heritage Sites as those that have “outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view,” such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall and the Pyramid Fields.
Burgundy’s winegrowers strongly believe that the region’s climats (named individual vineyard parcels) and viniculture deserve to be globally acknowledged considering its vineyards date back to 910, and have “informed our collective understanding of terroir.”
“The main difference between Burgundy and other regions is that Burgundy has a thousand-year history of linking the wine to the place where it is produced,” says Guillaume d’Angerville, the proprietor of Domaine Marquis d’Angerville. “Nowhere else in the world has this philosophy of winemaking been taken to such a level of detail.”
It took a team of more than 30 scientists, historians and geologists to help complete the formal proposals. The last challenge will come when UNESCO experts visit Burgundy’s climats this fall for a final examination.
Head over to the project’s website to support the cause. [The Daily Beast] [Photo: Flickr/Phillip Capper]