Chorey-Les-Beaune 2020

The Tollot-Beaut family Domaine is based at Chorey-Les-Beaune, often thought of as a slightly old-fashioned backwater. Their vineyard holdings, however, extend to Beaune, Savigny, Aloxe-Corton and a tiny holding in the Corton Charlemagne vineyard. The hallmark of their wines is a striking purity of fruit - the reds display a truly succulent quality supported (but never dominated) by judicious use of oak. It is now Nathalie Tollot who is in charge, alongside other members of this extensive family.

Pinot Noir has very aromatic profile, very fresh acidity and low level of quaite soft tannins. The nature of Pinot Noir wine is its flavors of red berries and cherry (red sour cherries in lighter wines and cooked black cherries in bold examples). This wine matures very exating, developing notes of berry jam, violets, leather, moss and mushrooms.

Chorey-lès-Beaune is a wine-producing village in the Côte de Beaune sub-region of Burgundy. The wines are predominantly red, made from around 125 hectares of Pinot Noir vines. However, there is a small but increasing quantity of white wine being made under the appellation, from Chardonnay.   Located near the historic town of Beaune the name of the village actually means Chorey near Beaune, the vineyards sit on the plains below the Côte d'Or escarpment and thus qualify only for the lower tiers of the appellation system.   Deprived of the increased sunshine levels and drainage enjoyed by the vineyards on the slopes above, the vines here struggle to ripen with the same reliability. Consequently they tend to produce lighter, rather simpler wines.

Burgundy (Bourgogne) can be confusing because of the multiplicity of its appellations - all the small vineyards are divided between multiple producers so it can often be difficult to understand this diversity. However, it is the exact reason why the wines of Burgundy are considered to be the finest in the world. A common topic of discussion, when talking about Burgundy, is the concept of "terroir" - a unique combination of soil and climate conditions that affects the taste of wine in the appellations, making it unique to each village. Winemakers mainly use the capricious Pinot Noir and the classical Chardonnay to create true masterpieces, while Gamay and Aligote are used to make wines of a bit simpler style. Particular attention should be paid to the hierarchy of wines. First there are the regional and village wines, a step higher - the Premier Cru wines and the outstanding Grand Cru - at the top. Due the complex and inconsistent weather that can notably impact wine quality especially in bad harvest years, a very important factor here is the so called millesime - the harvest year of the grapes the particular wine is produced of, because each of these years has its own unique taste. Purchasing Burgundy wines is not easy because there are many details that should be taken into consideration - the class of the vineyard, the assessment of the manufacturer, the age of the vines, the quality of the wine as well as the millesime and, of course, the potential of ageing. The sellers play a big role here - they must be truly passionate about wine and able to offer only the best quality producers with a good reputation. That is exactly the way "Noble Wine" works!