Roc Breïa Chardonnay 2023 (1500ml)

The village of Bray lies in the north of the Mâcon. It’s the zone that also includes Cruzille and Verzé and is one of the cooler, later-ripening areas of the Mâconnais. The Roc Breïa vines face west, and it’s windy, so there is little disease pressure. The Chardonnay is drawn from vines planted in the mid-1940s and mid-1970s. With assistance from vigneron Bastien Cubillé, Dancer is well on the way to raising the vineyard to his standards, bringing the soils and vines into balance, planting cover crops, cultivating inter-vine, etc. The 2023 release is superb: the result of vineyard progression and a (surprisingly) fine vintage in the Mâcon. 

The winemaking is very simple. The Chardonnay is pressed as bunches to used 500-litre barrels for fermentation, and the wine is bottled unfiltered with a tiny (20 mg/L) addition of sulphur. Instead of taking the Mâcon-Bray appellation, Dancer has chosen to label the wine Vin de France, so he has no restrictions regarding picking dates. As for the wine, forget any stereotypes you hold about Mâcon; this is a pure and linear white Burgundy, atypically fresh and racy for the region. Yes, it has texture and weight, but the flavours are very much in the citrus and nectarine world and far less sun-kissed than what we often see from this part of Burgundy. It’s a wine that loves air at this early stage, so don’t be scared to give it a good decant before serving.