Marsannay "Est-Ouest" AOP 2022

A Pinot Noir with drive and substance. The nose is powerful and spicy, carried by rich, ripe fruit: fully ripe cherries with a subtle kernel note, wild raspberries and lilac, alongside orange blossom water, a cold hearth and fatty bacon.

The wine comes from Marsannay in the northern Côte de Nuits. Jérôme Galeyrand came to Burgundy from the Loire, with no winegrowing family behind him. He spent eight years in the cheese trade, helped with the harvest at Domaine Alain Burguet in Gevrey-Chambertin from 1996, gained further experience with Vincent Geantet, and enrolled at the wine institute in Beaune. His first own plot covered just 0.05 hectares; today the domaine, based in Saint-Philibert east of Gevrey-Chambertin, farms 5.25 hectares.

Pure Pinot Noir, hand-harvested. Galeyrand works without technological or oenological interventions: no industrial yeasts, no fining agents, no enzymes, only as much sulphur as necessary. The vines are ploughed rather than chemically treated, pesticides are taboo, and lunar cycles inform the work. Depending on the cuvée and vintage, he ferments whole clusters or fully destemmed. The red wines age for 18 to 24 months in French oak barrels, with the proportion of new wood deliberately kept low.

The entry has a fleshy bite and grips immediately. The tannin is firm, fine-grained and tight-knit, its powdery texture almost sweet on the tip of the tongue. Behind it lies deep dark fruit, its concentration recalling cherry pulp rather than fresh berries, along with delicate spice. The wide-reaching acidity keeps extract and power in suspension.

This wine suits spicy cuisine: Chinese tea eggs, Sichuan braised fish with star anise, fennel and chilli, or Sichuan boiled beef.

Vinified in a small cellar at Galeyrand's home, with around 2,000 cases produced depending on the vintage, roughly 24,000 bottles. In 2020 he was awarded a star in the Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France.