Our Tasting Note:  A ruby core with vibrant, lighter ruby edges.  The perfume of the nose is extraordinary, pronounced aromas of cherry, wild raspberry, and strawberry, with subtle mixed baking spices and garden herbs from the whole clusters (30%), background notes of earth, minerality and sweet florals, this rises beautifully from the glass!  The palate is medium bodied, med grain, fine and supple tannins, the acidity is perfectly integrated, while the palate's intensity is dense and pronounced, but very fine and elegant!  Long on the finish, this is an outstatnding value!

Vineyard name: En Bessy, in the hills outside Dijon
Soil type: Clay-limestone
Vine age: 25 to 40 years old
Vineyard size: 4.5 hectares
Exposition: East and West exposure
Vinification: Hand Harvested, Marc's unique "whole cluster sandwich:" 2/3 whole cluster grapes at the top and bottom of the tank with 1/3 destemmed grapes in the middle, all fermented with native yeasts
Elevage: 10-12 months in used barrels, bottles unfined and unfiltered

A 100% Pinot Noir cuvée, from an organic and biodynamic estate. 5-ha parcel of vines planted in 1983 in the Coteaux de Dijon area, on clay-limestone and pebbly soils. Once a flourishing wine region, today it’s as if the Gobi desert surrounded the estate. The upside is… Marc has zero pesticide spraying and sulphur crazy neighbors! Vinification: non-interventionist, semi-carbonic maceration (with 70% of the grapes destemmed and 30% whole bunches), 12 months of maturation in barrels, with about 10% new oak. Micro-dose of sulphur at bottling.

Marc Soyard, a vigneron who trained for six years with Jean-Yves Bizot, decided in 2012 to set off on his own adventure. He acquired some vines in Villers-la-Faye in the Hautes-Côtes-de-Nuits – 15 ares, which is to say, next to nothing! But he’d have to make do, given the prices that have unfortunately resulted from property speculation in Burgundy! Then, in 2013, the Dijon regional authority handed him over the management of 8 hectares of 30 years old vines. The property is located west of Dijon, just 10 km from the city center. Marc has been vinifying his juices at Domaine de la Cras for almost 10 years now! Natural wines, for high-end cuvées that are highly sought after, and which never cease to amaze us. The desire of Marc was to yank Burgundy’s blanket of prestige north a bit to include Dijon too. Thanks to his meticulous work, a biodynamic approach and top-notch aging, the gamble has paid off!