Marsannay Rouge Longeroies 2022 93JM/93VM
Sylvain Pataille

(91-93) pts Vinous
The 2022 Marsannay Les Longeroies offers open red cherry and raspberry coulis scents on the nose—one of the most generous at the moment amongst Pataille's 2022s. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, slightly flinty red fruit and fine delineation, finishing with impressive focus. Plenty of energy coiled up in this Marsannay. Excellent. - By Neal Martin on November 2023
The titular winemaker was away when I dropped in at their rather cozy cellar in Marsannay, but his brother Laurent, who incidentally makes wine under his own name, was on hand. He guided me through their wide range based around Aligoté, Pataille being the vanguard of the Les Aligoteur movement, not to mention his enticing array of site-specific Marsannay cuvées. Laurent Pataille looks much like his brother with those thick curly locks, initially more taciturn than Sylvain but soon chatting away. These are low-intervention wines with minimal and occasionally no use of sulfur. Many are aged for the first year in wooden foudres before being racked into used barrels. Pataille could not remember the exact picking date, except that harvest started in early September. I found a couple of cuvées just a little too natural for my liking, which set a few alarm bells ringing, while others were exceptionally fine and remain excellent value-for-money to boot.

Size: 0.83 ha (2.05 ac) 

Variety: Pinot Noir

Vine Age: 2/3 planted in the early 2000s, 1/3 planted in the mid-1950s

Terroir: In Bas des Longeroies; Moderate slope facing southeast. Well-draining, gravelly, light reddish-brown to tan soils. 275-meters elevation.

Viticulture: Organic (certified Ecocert), biodynamic methods

Vinification: 100% whole-cluster pressing, indigenous yeast fermentation, gentle extraction. Aged for 18 months in barrel (15% new), low sulfur additions only at bottling.

Etymology: Longeroies is a combination of the words longe meaning “long and narrow.” Roie means “furrow,” a long narrow trench made in the ground by a plow.

Site: Les Longeroies is a very large vineyard spanning a kilometer from north to south. It is divided into three parcels: Dessus des Longeroies, Bas des Longeroies, and En Montchenevoy. The three parcels total 36 hectares (89 acres). Sylvain’s Longeroies is located in Bas des Longeroies (18.5 ha or 46 ac), which is considered the best part of the vineyard for red wine. The vineyard sits at 275-meters elevation. The slope is moderate. It faces southeast.

Geology: The northern portion of Marsannay rests on a large block of rock that has been literally “down-dropped”, meaning that the slope is made up of younger rocks are usually found at the very top of the slopes. These rocks include the White Oolite at the top of the vineyard and the hard, pink Prémeaux limestone. Comblanchien limestone is located just above the vineyard and is included in the slopewash found below. The middle and lower portions of Bas Longeroies also include sandy marl and ancient alluvium from the old Ouche riverbed (It now runs further east).

Soil: The soils are thinner at the top (30-40 cm) and deeper at the bottom of the slope (70-80 cm). In general, the soil of Bas Longeroies is gravelly, and light reddish-orange to tan in color. The soils here contain a mixture of many different types of limestone coming from many different places. The western portion of the vineyard is dominated by the limestone found upslope and from the combe to the southwest, whereas the eastern portion of the vineyard at the bottom of the slope is dominated by the ancient alluvium from the Ouche river. Sylvain’s parcel runs from the bottom to the top of Bas des Longeroies and includes both types of soils.