The vineyards on the slope of the Côte d'Or form a strip below and east of the woodland on the Jurassic limestone hills. In the plain of the Saône to the east, there are large fields. The commune is also traversed by the A31 road and the railway from Dijon to the south with a large marshalling yard(Gevrey-Triage). There is also a stretch of Roman road from Dijon to the southern end of the Forest of Cîteaux, to the south of the abbey.
As in England,[citation needed] Île de France and in the South of France, vines in Burgundy were planted very early on. Only in Gevrey-Chambertin, however, have archaeological digs been able to find Gallo-Roman vines dating back to the 1st Century BC. The outline of 120 vine stocks was discovered in 2008, during the expansion of a residential development that was updating 300 septic tanks all lined up in an area of 6 km2. This archaeological discovery corroborates with texts written by Pliny the Elder and Columella, making it credible that the Gallo-Roman vines in Gevrey-Chambertin were the first vines to be planted in Bourgogne. The vines were planted in rows, just as they would be today, but the choice of land used and its exposure were quite different: the Gallo-Roman vines were planted on plains, as opposed to the terraces that most of today's Côtes de Nuits is grown on. Furthermore, wines made from these vines would have had a different taste, notably because the Gallo-Romans added spices as preservatives.
Jacques-Théodore Saconney, 20th century senior French army general, innovative scientific and adventurous balloonist (related to Gaston Roupnel)
International relations
The commune is twinned with Nierstein in the Rheinhessen wine region of Germany, and with the Belgian town Spy in the Namur province. The Albasso choir received the Sarteline choir of Sart-Bernard, Namur, from 24 to 25 March 2007. In its turn, the Gevrey-Chambertin choir went to Belgium from 1 to 2 March 2009. A return visit of the Belgian choir to the commune is currently being discussed.