Coteaux de l’Ain is an IGP title that covers red, white and rosé wines made in the Ain department in eastern France. Viticulture in the department borrows heavily from the surrounding wine regions: in particular from Savoie in the east, but also from Jura in the north and the Maconnais and Beaujolais areas of southern Burgundy. This is also true of the AOC-level appellations of Bugey which are located in Ain.
The department lies on the French border with Switzerland, and is demarcated on its southern edge by the Rhone river before it flows south to create the famous slopes of the Rhone Valley. The Saone river makes up the western border of the department. (© Proprietary Content, Wine-Searcher.)
© Wikimedia/Semnoz
Ain can be easily divided in two in terms of the landscape: the southern tip of the Jura mountain chain covers the eastern side of Ain, while the land north of Lyon in the west is made up of a large, low-lying plain. Most Ain vineyards – both AOC and IGP – are located in the mountains, where the terroir is better suited to grapegrowing. It is here that three of the four sub-appellations of Coteaux de l’Ain are found: Pays de Gex, Revermont and Valroney. Val de Saone is on the western side of the department.
The Jura mountains are made up of limestone and soils in the steep, south-facing vineyards tend to be thin and fragmented, with excellent drainage. This helps mitigate the effects of the relatively high rainfall in the department, as water is not able to settle in the soil and waterlog the vines.
The Ain climate is definitively continental, with hot summers and cold, often snowy winters. The south-facing aspect of the vineyards helps to maximize sunlight exposure in the cool environment, optimizing ripening. Slopes also help to reduce the dangers of frost during the growing season, as cold air is constantly moving and cannot pool over the vineyards.
The cool climate in Ain is better-suited to earlier-ripening varieties – a fact reflected in the list of permitted grape varieties in Coteaux de l’Ain IGP wines. These include the regional favorites of Jacquère, Altesse, Chasselas and Mondeuse, as well as more far-reaching grape varieties like Pinot Noir and Gamay. The majority of wines made using the Coteaux de l’Ain IGP are dry white wines that either come from vineyards that lie outside of the Bugey vineyard zone or are made with different vinification techniques as set out in the Bugey appellation laws.
The Coteaux de l’Ain IGP was previously known as Vin de Pays de l’Ain, until 2009 when the Vin de Pays category began to be phased out. It is now known as Indication Géographique Protégée instead, a category that is more closely aligned with the European Union’s Protected Geographical Indication category.
