Few wineries are as idyllic—romantic, even—as Follin’s in Aloxe-Corton, a village in the valley below the majestic hill of Corton. Maybe it’s the eighteenth-century cuverie, the rose bushes that scale its stone walls in summertime, or the prized, photogenic Clos du Chapitre vineyard that grows around Aloxe’s Saint-Médard church. The parcel there, a walled-in semi-monopole (shared with just one other grower), has soil so abundantly stony your boots crunch against hunks of limestone with every step. Pinot vines soak up these minerals, giving us a wine that’s profound, expressive, and as captivating as only high-quality red Burgundy can be.

You might be caught off guard by how delicious this unassuming bottle of Irancy from the Auxerrois region of Burgundy is. The Cantin family is making some of the most surprising and gorgeous wines we’ve started to import recently, and I am completely hooked. This cuvée blends Pinot Noir from lieux-dits in and around the Irancy appellation, an amphitheater of vineyards growing on Kimmeridgian limestone soil—like its neighbor in Chablis. A vibrant rouge, it has notes of violet, fennel seed, and black pepper coiled together around a chalky core. 

If a handful of Côte d’Or villages, like Volnay, Meursault, and Gevrey-Chambertin, have been consistently prestigious for centuries, Marsannay lies at the other end of the spectrum. Despite having been preferred by the dukes of Bourgogne as far back as the fourteenth century, it has largely been overlooked throughout the last couple of centuries, and its reputation has been on the rise only in the past few decades with the accumulation of talented vignerons such as Régis Bouvier. Why did the Côte de Nuits’ northernmost appellation languish in obscurity and misunderstanding while its neighbors prospered?
     The recent history begins in the nineteenth century, when Marsannay producers broke from the rest of the Côte and generally ripped out their Pinot Noir vines in favor of Gamay to satisfy the market of neighboring Dijon. After phylloxera completed the damage to Marsannay’s Pinot Noir production, Joseph Clair replanted the grape and, in 1919, made a Pinot Noir rosé, launching Marsannay’s legacy as Burgundy’s leading source of serious and delicious pink wine. Nearly five decades later, in 1965, wines from this commune were finally allowed to bear labels stating “Bourgogne Rouge de Marsannay” and “Bourgogne Rosé de Marsannay.” In 1987, Marsannay was granted AOC status, placing it in the same hierarchy as village-level Gevrey-Chambertin and Volnay. Since then, ambitious Marsannay producers have bottled their wines by lieu-dit, highlighting notable parcels. Today, many Burgundians believe that conferral of premier cru status to the best sites is imminent. If this happens, the sloping vineyard Les Longeroies will be among the first to be officially elevated.
     Arguably Régis’s most over-delivering wine—and coming from his oldest vines—the Longeroies rouge showcases notes of black cherries, black tea, and baking spices. It stands among our most versatile red Burgundies, regardless of price.