There are plenty of reasons to pay closer attention to the Marsannay appellation but in my mind, the most important one is sheer value. There are other similarly priced appellations in the Côte d’Or, Savigny-les-Beaune for instance, but Côte de Nuits those wines are not. Marsannay sits atop the same hard Jurassic limestone as the rest of the Côte, including a significant amount of calcaire à entroques but the reason usually cited for Marsannay’s lack of even premier cru vineyards is the quality of the topsoil; alluvial wash from the river Ouche. The Clos du Roy vineyard, considered to be the finest in the appellation, sits on a steep hillside with very thin, reddish topsoil and a bit of sand over Comblanchien limestone and very little clay. These are the soil conditions which create the finest, most elegant Pinot Noirs and the reason that when vineyards are upgraded to premier cru status in Marsannay, Clos du Roy will almost definitely be the first.