Step off Burgundy’s well-trodden path and head up a less promising gravel track north-west of Dijon and you’ll find the home of Marc Soyard – possibly the region’s newest and most sought-after wine making great.

Marc spent seven vintages working with Jean-Yves Bizot, and you can see that the pupil too has become a master. While his most noted wine is from Pommard, his wines offer a very Vosne Romanée-esque (and utterly sublime) sinuous silkiness, coiled around central cores of fruit. Like Bizot’s wines, Soyard’s appear built to age beautifully, yet show such freshness and energy even from barrel that it’ll be sorely tempting to drink them too young.

No pilgrimage to Burgundy is complete without an hour or two spent wandering the streets of Vosne-Romanée. In typical Burgundian fashion, the houses aren’t particularly grand. You won’t find many cellars offering ‘degustation’. Yet you can’t help but be made to feel a little giddy by the low-key, yet epic winemaking greatness that infuses the village.

Each house you pass by seems to have a small plaque at the front gate announcing the residence of another world-class, all-time-great producer of Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. DRC rubs up against several members of the Gros family, who are neighboured by Bizot, who lives nearby Leroy and… the list goes on and on.