Domaine Vincent Dancer

An early adopter of organic farming (indeed, the first in Chassagne-Montrachet to receive organic certification), Vincent Dancer has long been an exemplar of more sustainable approaches to viticulture in Burgundy. Today, Dancer and his son Théo — who has now taken the helm at the domaine—are taking things further, launching an agroforestry initiative, planting a vineyard in Nantoux in the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune interspersed with fruit trees and wooded borders. Their approach is as admirable as the concentrated, characterful wines that they produce.

Vincent Dancer established this five-hectare domaine in 1996, settling in Chassagne-Montrachet and taking back control of some family holdings that had been rented out to others. Working with low-yielding, certified-organic vineyards, Dancer is the quintessential noninterventionist, disdaining analysis until bottling and letting the wine chart its own course: a year after the vintage, it isn't uncommon for his wines still to be gently fermenting. This attitude isn't to be conflated with negligence, however, as Dancer takes care of his wines as punctiliously as he does his vines. Ripe grapes, low yields and long maturation in barrel deliver white wines that are textural, concentrated and expressive, beautifully defined by their respective terroirs and routinely among the most characterful and original in Burgundy, distinctive in style without being stylized. As Vincent’s son Théo takes a leading role, agroforestry initiatives are underway, and in the cellar, all new oak has been banished.