Bruno Clair

Bruno Clair founded this domaine in 1979 at Marsannay-la-Côte, at the northern gate of the Côte de Nuits, with around 17 hectares of family vines. The family story starts in 1919, when his grandfather Joseph Clair married Marguerite Daü of Marsannay; the Clair-Daü estate they built was dissolved in 1985. The domaine now farms some 27 hectares spread across eight villages and 32 appellations, an unusually wide footprint for Burgundy, and one that lets a single grower's hand be read across very different terroirs. Isabelle Clair joined in 2005, and the three children, Edouard, Margaux and Arthur, between 2010 and 2018.

At the top sit three Grands Crus: Bonnes-Mares, straddling Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze in Gevrey, and the white Corton-Charlemagne, acquired in 1993. Among the Premiers Crus, Gevrey-Chambertin Clos du Fonteny is a monopole of the domaine, and the range also takes in Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques and two Savigny-lès-Beaune cuvées, Les Jarrons and La Dominode, the latter from old vines in the Hauts Jarrons. Marsannay remains the home appellation, in red and rosé and in lieux-dits including Les Grasses Têtes and Les Longeroies, with Morey-Saint-Denis En la Rue de Vergy and a white Pernand-Vergelesses among the village wines. Soils are ploughed and chemical inputs kept to a minimum.

The reds show black cherry, violet and spice over fine tannins, built on aromatic lift and a mineral core rather than extraction. Arcana Cabinet lists Bruno Clair from village Marsannay up to Chambertin-Clos de Bèze.