Domaine Tollot-Beaut is the estate in Chorey-lès-Beaune which started bottling its own wines since 1921.
Today the ‘front of house’ face of 24ha domaine is Nathalie Tollot. She is the 5th generation to run a domaine that has been run from the same premises for over 100 years — since late 19th century — though parts of the cellars are as much as 250 years old.
In the vineyard, Tollot-Beaut does not use fertilisers, and green harvests are usually performed to limit yields. Grapes are harvested manually on a plot-by-plot basis. Red fruit is mostly destemmed and lightly handled to avoid crushing before going into fermentation tanks.
Domaine Tollot-Beaut also has a reputation for its balanced use of oak, the philosophy behind is about cleanliness of winemaking, not oak flavour.
Grand Cru wines are aged 18 months in around 50% of new oak.
The estate is known for its high proportion of old vines from Pinot Fin, the original clone of Pinot Noir.
We had the chance to taste a small vertical of Corton-Bressandes and also compare with Corton.
Producers of Corton have the option of labeling the wine as simply “Corton,” or adding the name of one of 28 individual climats that make up this Corton Grand Cru. Corton-Bressandes is a well-known, east-facing mid slope climat with high limestone content often cited as one of the very best climats of the hill.
Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2016 (
91) is very youthful and tight, showing primary black fruits over spices and earth. High acidity and firm yet green tannins. It will benefit a lot from some bottle age as most of Corton reds do, however ’16 might reach its maturity bit earlier.
Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2015 (92+) was definitely the wine of the tasting. Still youthful and vanilla oaky with firm tannins, but it revealed its high breed with more powerful and even perfumed aromatics. Mix of red & black berries, earthiness, flowers with touch of herbs.
Then we followed with the battle of Grand Crus: Corton-Bressandes vs Corton both from 2013 vintage.
Corton comes from Les Combes, a small climat that faces directly south. The vines were planted between 1930 and 2008.
Corton Grand Cru 2013 (90). Aromas and flavors of black cherry, fur, chocolate, mineral. Concentrated, structured.
Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2013 (90) was very much consistent with younger vintages in style. The wine seems to be closed up even with extra bottle aging which gave it some development. In this pair with Corton it showed more balanced
Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2011 (89) being the oldest wine of the tasting didn’t show on par with the others. Fruit aromas mixed with beetroot flavours. It lacks concentration on the palate and felt somewhat watery and diluted which I can only blame odd ’11 vintage for.