Tollot Beaut
By James Colacicchi
Tollot Beaut

A major highlight for me of any Burgundy trip is the opportunity to visit Domaine Tollot Beaut – where you’ll always come across some of the greatest value wines in the whole of Burgundy. Year on year I have bought their Chorey Les Beaune Pieces du Chapitre for about £20.00 a bottle IB and it NEVER disappoints.

2017 is no exception, cheerily greeted by Nathalie Tollot at the gates; we were led into her concrete fermentation room – the fermenters have long been decorated with floral patterns bearing the name Domaine Tollot Beaut on them, which are charming to see. We tasted the absolutely brilliant 2017 Bourgogne Rouge from a stainless steel tank – you can measure a Domaine’s vintage by their Bourgogne Rouge, if it is poor then their Grand Crus definitely won’t be good. No such issue here. Their Chorey Les Beaune is fantastic – as is the aforementioned Lieu Dits Pieces du Chaptire – which really ought to be a 1er Cru.

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“A major highlight for me of any Burgundy trip is the opportunity to visit Domaine Tollot Beaut...”

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As is the way when tasting through a domaine’s vintage you start to notice a theme or narrative, and the 2017s for Tollot are very forward, generous wines, with very pretty, inviting red fruits. There is an underlying core of structure though with some nice tannin; you’ll be drinking them early and laying them down - think ‘05s mixed with ‘07s.

We tasted the Aloxe-Corton village and 1er Cru Vercots which are both splendid wines. They make me wonder why I don’t buy more wine from these sites below the Corton hill. The highlight of the visit was inevitably the Corton Bressandes Grand Cru. It’s a great vintage for wines from Corton (both red and white). I sometimes find them quite hard to read in their youth – but the 2017s are open books – and they are delicious. The Bressandes is easily one of the most affordable Grand Crus that is worth having. Make sure you snap one up.