News Oak

Once the property of the house of Lorraine, the forest of Darney extends over 22000 hectares (54363 acres) and 36 communes of the Vosges and the Haute-Saône. In the 12th century the forest was peppered with Cistercian abbeys and priories, and later the dukes of Lorraine brought over Czech glassmakers and installed forges and steelworks, all with an insatiable appetite for wood.

The forest of Compiègne, the third largest national forest in France, forms a circle some 14 kilometers (8½ miles plus) in circumference to the northeast of Paris, and covers 14,300 hectares (35,335 acres). With a perimeter that has hardly altered since the Middle Ages, this ancient hunting preserve owes its fame to the kings of France.

Because of its history and its timber forest logging for more than 300 years, the Bertranges national forest harbours natural treasures that we may discover walking the roads of that 7600 hectares forest.

As its name suggests, this forest formerly belonged to the Abbey of Cîteaux, founded in 1098 under the protection of the dukes of Burgundy. But the size and wealth of the estate was highly coveted, and it was repeatedly plundered before it entered the public domain following the Revolution.

With three distinct massifs spread over the Indre and the Cher, this forest of 5,100 hectares (12,600 acres) is located on a fairly heterogeneous geological base of sand, clay, and limestone.

A former seigniorial property before becoming royal hunting land, the forest of Chinon covers 5,100 hectares (12,600 acres) of predominantly sessile oak (52%), although Scots (25%), and maritime (17%) pine, as well as beech, vie for space with the cooper’s favorite wood.

At 5,300 hectares (13,096 acres), the national forest of Châteauroux is a prime example of a forest massif of the Atlantic type. 99% of it is oak, 80% sessile and 20% common.

In the forest of Blois, the last remnant of the ancient forest of Blémars that until the 13th century covered most of the Tours part of the Gâtine, the sessile oak is dominant to the tune of 100%.

The massif of Bitche in the Moselle comprises 19,000 hectares (almost 47,000 acres) of national forest and more than 1000 hectares (2470 acres) of locally held forest.

Since the venerable oak forest of Bertranges grows in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region, it might be said that it was destined for wine by its very geography.