Domaine Tollot Beaut

Domaine Tollot Beaut

Sitting on 24ha around the north of Beaune, Domaine Tollot-Beaut is run by 5th generation Nathalie Tollot and her extended family. Their focus is very much on the vines, something that is directly translated into the bottle. The clarity of fruit and energy of the wines stands out from other domaines in the area. Despite soaring prices in Burgundy, Nathalie keeps her prices at a reasonable level. These are proper ‘drinking’ Burgundies, to be enjoyed without guilt or worry! The use of oak is very much in the background, purity and freshness to the fore. Their signature monopole ‘La Pièce du Chapitre’ is defined, crunchy and deliciously unctuous in riper vintages. The Grand Crus offer outstanding value for the purity of fruit and ageing potential. 

Burgundy
FRANCE

A five-generation family business that works 25 hectares in four communes of the Côte de Beaune: Chorey-lès-Beaune, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Beaune, Aloxe-Corton. Bottled at the Domaine since 1921.

Domaine Tollot-Beaut is one of a very select band of Côte d’Or domaines.

Nathalie Tollot now owns and operates 24 hectares of vines spread over a number of different sites around Burgundy. The Pinot Noir grapes used for this expression come from Chorey-lès-Beaune, which lies on the plains below the Cote d’Or escarpment. After harvesting and fermentation, the liquid was aged for an additional 16 months in French oak barrels. This area is renowned for its red wine production, and this vintage is certainly a shining example of the quality coming from Tollot-Beaut. They use no fertilisers, they keep yields low and they harvest by hand.

Viticulture

The 24 hectare domaine of Tollot-Beaut sits modestly in the centre of Chorey-lès-Beaune. Today the ‘front of house’ face of the domaine is Nathalie Tollot – who is, by the way, happy to converse with you in either French, English or German – yet there are many other Tollots to be seen in the cuverie and the vineyards; uncle Jack, father Alain and Nathalie’s cousins Jean-Paul and Olivier. The domaine is sited on the rue Alexandre Tollot, named in honour of Nathalie’s great grandfather who was for many years the Mayor of Chorey. The Beaut part of the domain’s name comes from Alexandre’s wife – Aurélie Beaut. Today Nathalie is the fifth 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. Initially the family owned vines only in Chorey, but successive generations made small acquisitions in Savigny, Aloxe and Beaune e.g. Corton Bressandes in the 1930’s, Savigny Champs-Chevrey in the 1950’s and much more recently their new ‘monopole’ Chorey-lès-Beaune ‘Pièce du Chapitre’.

Winemaking

Every vineyard is treated as an individual. The domaine chooses to plow, and at the end of every year pushes a layer of soil over the feet of the vines for the winter then pushes the soil back in the spring – this helps to aerate the soil as much as shielding the base of the vine from some of the winter cold. No fertilisers are used. A green harvest is usually performed in the summer to limit yields. The grapes are harvested manually, parcel by parcel dictated by their ripeness, the only mechanical operation is the foliage thinning/tidying. Nathalie tells that 80% of their work is concentrated in the vineyards to get the best grapes, hand harvested and 99% de-stemmed and handled as lightly as possible to avoid crushing before going into the tanks. The tanks were fitted with the option of heating in 1968, nowadays it is cooling that they require! Typical fermentations last for 10-12 days with pump-overs in the first few days, then twice-per-day pigeage for the remainder. For their Corton-Charlemagne, the grapes go through a pneumatic-press. Typically it’s a slow fermentation ~17-18°C, just before completion of the alcoholic fermentation the wine is moved into the barrels where they will stay for around 16 months. An average year will yield 5 barrels. The use of oak at this domaine is worth comment as it has always been regarded as being on the generous side, but today it is to quite a subtle effect; there is no toast, rather there is padding out of the palate, an extra fatness and apparent richness that makes seemingly ‘glossy’ wines – it makes the wines very attractive in their youth with no apparent downside from ageing. The villages and regional wines stay in barrel for 16-18 months, and receive ~20% new oak, the quantity of new oak reaches a maximum of ~60% for the grand crus. Nathalie explains that the philosophy behind their oak regime is about cleanliness of winemaking, not oak flavour, she chooses barrels from Francois Freres, with a mix from the forests of Alliers and Bertranges.

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