Bruno Clair Marsannay Les Vaudenelles 2018

Bruno Clair founded his Marsannay-la-Côte domaine in 1979, the sixth generation of a Burgundian winegrowing family, and grew it with vines entrusted to him when the old Clair-Daü estate was divided in 1985; today it covers 27 hectares across eight villages, from Marsannay to Chambertin Clos de Bèze and Bonnes-Mares. Les Vaudenelles sits at the top of the Marsannay slope, facing southeast at around 320 meters, where thin, pale, clay-rich soils lie over Ostrea acuminata marl, a bedrock packed with small fossil oysters. Fermentation runs on ambient yeasts in open wooden vats with 10 to 20 percent whole clusters, followed by 18 to 20 months in barrel, roughly a quarter of it new. The most delicate of Clair's Marsannay lieux-dits, it is a fresh, ruby-toned Pinot Noir built on perfume rather than power, with fine balance and light tannins. Proof that a serious Côte de Nuits red does not need a famous village name on the label.