Roc Breïa Chardonnay 2023

The village of Bray lies in the north of the Mâconnais. It’s the zone that also includes Cruzille and Verzé and is one of the cooler, later-ripening areas of the Mâconnais. The Roc Breïa vines face west, and it’s windy, so there is little disease pressure. The Chardonnay is drawn from vines planted in the mid-1940s and mid-’70s. In the cellar, the winemaking is simple. The Chardonnay is whole bunch-pressed, and the wine ferments in used 500-litre barrels. It’s bottled unfiltered, and the only sulphur added is at bottling: a tiny 20 mg/L. Instead of taking the Mâcon-Bray appellation, Dancer has chosen to label the wine Vin de France, so he has no restrictions regarding picking dates. As for the wine itself, forget any stereotype about Mâcon; this is a juicy, punchy white Burgundy, atypically fresh and racy for the region.