South of the Côte de Beaune, the explosive, young winemaker Théo Dancer has drummed up another exciting project: Roc Breïa, a new expression of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Théo found great potential in an overlooked part of the Côte d’Or on windy West-facing vineyards in the Mâcon. The Bray area, which also includes Cruzille and Verzé, is one of the later ripening areas of the Mâconnais and this micro-climate ripens later than Chassagne, according to Théo. This has proven the perfect opportunity for him to take on another challenge and craft complex, layered wines in a new region of Burgundy.

Roc Breïa’s 10 hectares, or Theo’s “big garden,” are traditional in composition, a blend of clay, silt, and limestone, with roughly 3 hectares of Chardonnay and 7 hectares of Pinot Noir, planted between the 1950s and 1970s. Since taking over the Domaine in 2021 and making their first vintage, Théo has seen massive improvements. He has particularly seen how the vineyards are getting back to “true nature” in a diversified ecosystem, knowing where they started from with conventional vineyard practices happening for 40 years. 

 In the cellar, winemaking is very simple. Théo’s focus is to be as less intrusive as possible on the wines, and to allow them the freedom to take their own path in gaining the character they want. Théo believes you have to be fully confident with the quality of the grapes that you are harvesting. In his opinion, the wines are already made by the time they get to the winery.

The Chardonnay is whole bunch-pressed, and the wine ferments in 500-liter barrels. It’s bottled unfiltered, and the only sulfur added is at bottling: a tiny 20 mg/L. The Pinot Noir vines are a touch younger than the Chardonnay. This wine is vinified with 50% whole bunch, followed by maturation in used 500-liter barrels. After vinifying the parcels separately, Théo is picking the best barrels and making one blended cuvée in each white and red, with only a portion of production being bottled. This speaks to his focus on quality and celebration of blended bottlings, separating this project from Théo’s others.