Marsannay Cote de Nuits

When Jean Latour established the house in 1797 — his family already three generations into vine ownership on the Côte d'Or — the ambition was to bottle Burgundy's northern appellations with the same rigour applied to Grand Cru parcels. Marsannay sits at the northern gateway of the Côte de Nuits, where limestone-bedrock soils give way to lighter clay-limestone mixes at relatively modest elevations, producing Pinot Noir with a cooler aromatic register and firmer structural backbone than villages further south. Grapes are 100% hand-harvested, fully destemmed, and fermented in large open wooden vats for approximately 14 days with manual pigeage — the same gravity-flow infrastructure used at the Corton Grancey Cuverie, built in 1832 into the hillside at Aloxe-Corton. Aging proceeds in French oak at 15–35% new, medium toast, for 10–12 months, using barrels coopered in-house from air-dried French oak. The house's most openly debated signature: all reds are flash-pasteurised at approximately 72°C for 2–3 seconds before bottling, eliminating fining while ensuring microbiological stability — a practice no other major Burgundy négociant publicly acknowledges. For 2023, the Côte de Nuits delivered bright, aromatic Pinot Noir with good natural acidity; drinking well on release with a 3–6 year window ahead.