2021 Sylvain Pataille Marsannay Rouge

WINEMAKER: Sylvain Pataille
REGION: Burgundy, FR
VARIETY: Pinot Noir
VITICULTURE: Certified Organic/Biodynamic

With a patchwork of vines covering more than two hectares, this is arguably Pataille’s signature red cuvée. The vineyards are spread across Chenôve, Couchey and Marsannay-la-Côte. All the vines were planted between 1950 and 1980, with the youngest over 40 years old. The wines age in a mixture of used barriques and several old demi-muids (600 litres). The final blend includes around 50% bunches. “The 2021 Marsannay is fleshy and charming, bursting with aromas of raspberries, plums and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, textural and seamless, with lively acids and a saline finish, it's derived from parcels dotted all over the appellation.” 90 points, William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

By the time Pataille had reached his mid-teens, he had started working vintages on the Côte and enrolled at Beaune’s Lycée Viticole. Here, he shared a classroom with Benjamin Leroux, Olivier Lamy, Nicolas Rossignol and Pierre-Yves Colin—how we would love to have been a fly on the wall at this school! While Lamy returned to his family Domaine in Saint Aubin and Leroux took off to Oregon, Pataille moved to Bordeaux to continue his studies. Here he met Kyriakos Kynigopoulos, who took the precocious talent back to Burgundy to help him at Burgundia Oenology in Beaune.

In the cellar, whole-cluster vinification (where it makes sense), natural ferments, extended macerations, very low sulphur use, and long maturations are the basics of Pataille’s approach. He uses an old vertical press, inherited from his grandfather, that presses very slowly over six to eight hours and is used for both whites and reds. Pataille describes his approach in the cellar as the “new old style”. 

Pataille has been co-opted under the natural banner, regardless of whether he is comfortable with the dogma and the company that this entails—and he isn’t comfortable. Pataille tells us he has no interest in badges, and while his aim is to use as little sulphur as possible—hardly controversial for a grower at this level—it takes a great deal of work in the vineyard and cellar to ensure that he can work this way.