2021 Roc Breia Theo Dancer
Pinot Noir

89-91 Points William Kelley RobertParker.com september 2022

“The Roc Breïa 2021 Pinot Noir is just as charming as its white counterpart, bursting with aromas of red berries, plums, rose petals and orange rind. Medium-bodied, open and supple, with melting tannins and a lively, succulent profile, it will drink well on release. The Pinot Noir was vinified with some 50% whole bunch this year, followed by maturation in large used barrels.

Roc Breïa is an exciting new project in the Mâconnais led by Chassagne-Montrachet’s Théo Dancer. There has long been a domaine at this site in the hamlet of Bray, but its fruit was always sold to the négoce. When its owners wanted to sell, two investors decided to buy it—one of them being the courtier who used to sell the crop in the past. Dancer heard of the acquisition and went to see the vineyards; he immediately proposed to sign up as a consultant but only on the condition that he’d control the whole affair from A to Z, beginning with the farming and ending with the allocations. He took over on July 1, 2021, in the midst of a challenging growing season and has produced a fine debut vintage. But what the future holds is surely even more exciting: amounting to some 10 hectares, all in one single block, this site, in contrast with the morcellated holdings of the Côte de Beaune, is ideally suited to organic farming and agroforestry initiatives. Dancer is already working to bring the soils back into balance, leaving cover crops and manually cultivating under the rows, so this will be a project to follow closely. In the cellar, winemaking is very simple: Chardonnay must ferments in used 500-liter barrels at its own pace, and Pinot Noir sees very gentle macerations with a certain percentage of whole bunch, similarly followed by maturation in used 500-liter barrels. Dancer then makes a rigorous barrel selection, eliminating anything he doesn’t like from the final blend. There will only be two cuvées, a red and a white, both released as Vin de France to avoid treading on neighbors’ toes. The first wines should be released later this year, and readers keen to remain on Burgundy’s cutting edge will want to secure some!