The Mâconnais wine region in the south of Burgundy is centered around – and named after – the provincial town of Mâcon. The area produces a considerable quantity of wine, specializing in white wines made from Chardonnay and a smaller number of red wines made from Pinot Noir and Gamay.
Unlike the Côte d'Or to the north, where a densely planted strip of vineyards runs roughly north–south through the countryside, the vineyards of the Maconnais are more sparsely planted and interspersed with land dedicated to other forms of agriculture. The landscape here is one of rolling limestone hills, bordered in the east by the Saône river as it flows south to meet the Rhône just outside Lyon. The Mâconnais climate shows signs of its proximity to the Rhône Valley, with warmer-than-average temperatures, lower rainfall and – perhaps most significantly – less risk of vine-damaging spring frosts.
The southern end of the Mâconnais overlaps slightly with the northern edge of Beaujolais – itself officially part of the Burgundy wine region, but often treated as separate.
