The most striking feature of the Orches area is the cliffs (falaises) behind the village.  These are Jurassic in age (Bajocian; Calcaires à entroques) formed by prograding, shallow-marine carbonate dunes.  The plateau at the top of the cliffs has a thin covering of Upper Bajocian shales (“Marnes à Ostrea acuminata”).  The slopes below the cliffs to the south/east of the village are made up of Lower Jurassic (Liassic) shales and marnes.  There is a large fault (Faille de St Romain) at the foot of the slope (between Orches and the village of Melin) which downthrows the Jurassic to the East such that the majority of the vineyards in the Auxey-Durresse to Pommard area rest on younger, mainly Callovian-Oxfordian strata.

The Bajocian (“Calcaires à entroques”, “Marnes à Ostrea acuminata”) form the substrate for much of the Grand Cru vineyards of the Cote de Nuit, further north.  The vineyards of the Cote de Beaune lie mainly on the calcareous shales and limestones of the middle and Upper Oxfordian, resting on the ferruginous oolite and hard limestones of the Collovian-Oxfordian (“Dalle nacrée”).  In many places, cones or sheets of gravel derived from the Upper Oxfordian have been deposited on the lower slopes and permit the vineyards to extend to the east, across the younger, Tertiary deposits of the Bresse Graben.