100% Pinot Noir

Food pairings: Poultry, charcuterie, pasta dishes and grilled meats with Mediterranean herbs.

Winemaking: The grapes are hand-harvested and sorted, and the proportion of destemmed fruit and whole clusters varies with the vintage. Fermentation lasts 15 to 19 days with regular extraction of colour, tannins and aromas; the free-run wine is drawn off by gravity and the press wine is obtained by slow, gentle pressing. The wine ages for 12 months in French oak barrels, 10% of them new.

Vineyards and terroir: Mercurey takes its name from the god Mercury and lies on the Roman Agrippa road that linked Chalon-sur-Saône to Autun. Faiveley's Vieilles Vignes is a blend of 20 different plots in the village, mostly on clay-limestone soils with a southeast exposure, from vines planted in 1962, 1978 and 1981. These old vines give a wine of exceptional aromatic intensity that faithfully expresses the Mercurey terroir. The vineyards are farmed organically, with certification beginning with the 2025 vintage.

Family and history: Founded in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1825, Domaine Faiveley has been run by the same family for seven generations and is today one of Burgundy's largest vineyard owners, with holdings from the Côte de Nuits to the Côte Chalonnaise. Guy Faiveley first gained access to vineyards in the Côte Chalonnaise in 1933, and the family acquired these properties for the domaine in 1963; Mercurey is one of the three pillars of the estate, with its own winemaking and aging facilities on site. Erwan Faiveley, the seventh generation, now leads the domaine with his sister Eve.

In the pictures: Members of the Faiveley family; Eve and Erwan Faiveley; and the barrel cellar at Domaine Faiveley (photos courtesy of Domaine Faiveley).