Roc Breia
Burgundy
If you have been following along with our journey of getting to know Theo Dancer, one thing we hope you have picked up is his eagerness to learn, grow and think outside the box all while not leaving behind practices from that past that clearly work.
At the Domaine, he hasn't really made many changes. His eponymous Theo Dancer wines have given him the ability to be more playful and use different grape varietals from various regions. Under the Roc Breia label, there lies an opportunity to grow a vineyard from the ground up. The farming philosophy is similar to that of the Domaine. What is unique to this 10.5 ha plot in Macon is that it was farmed conventionally prior; "When seeing the plot there wasn't life - that was a challenge, but an exciting challenge." This sort of blank slate gives Theo the opportunity to use farming techniques he has learned from his father and implement them into a new vineyard, starting from scratch and really seeing it come to life. A challenge that removed the negative connotation that comes along with the word, and simply excited him.
In the Côte d'Or it is traditional to see many different cuvées in a Domaine's range. Theo wanted to pursue something a bit simpler for Roc Breia, using 10ha just to make two wines: a chardonnay coming from vines 60+ years old and a Pinot Noir coming from vines 35+ years old.
Theo's Notes on the 2024 Vintage"The 2024 vintage in Burgundy turned out to be particularly challenging from a weather standpoint starting in May. The weather gave us no respite, with repeated rainfall that made vineyard protection difficult to manage. Downy mildew was especially aggressive and caused a significant loss of crop after flowering. One small consolation with mildew is that it affects quantity rather than quality, as the affected berries simply dry out.
Once the wines were in the cellar, however, the vintage proved to be remarkably impressive, and we were very pleased with the overall sanitary condition of the grapes at harvest time. Yields were extremely low, but this brought, in my view, great concentration and vibrancy. It is a fresher vintage, with harvest beginning on September 10th at Roc Breïa. A return to a more classic Burgundian style, somewhat reminiscent of 2021, which remains one of my favourite vintages so far.
For us, 2024 marks a new step forward in terms of quality, and each new vintage shows us a little more that our vineyard work is starting to pay off. We hope you will feel it in your glass when you open this new vintage."
