Wine Advisor
Tollot Beaut, Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2022
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2022 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru has a more reductive nose, but it works well, maintaining delineation and terroir expression, with hints of lanolin and Mirabelle. The palate is well balanced with seamlessly integrated oak. Very well judged acidity, harmonious and poised, it has a gentle grip on the lightly spiced finish. Nuanced but very effective, there is some clever winemaking behind this Corton-Charlemagne. Bottled under Diam 30. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.
About the Producer
The Tollot family represents a long lineage of winegrowers dating back to the late 1880s when François Tollot began planting vineyards in Chorey-lès-Beaune. His son, Alexandre Tollot, continued in his father’s footsteps and married Aurélie Beaut. In 1921, Tollot-Beaut became one of the first to bottle their wines under the domaine and started exporting their wines to the U.S. shortly thereafter. Today, cousins Nathalie, Jean-Paul, and Olivier Tollot are in charge. The wines of Tollot-Beaut are well-known for their serious but pleasing style across a range of appellations from Bourgogne to Grand Cru. Chorey-lès-Beaune lies on the plains below the Côte d'Or escarpment with 136 hectares almost exclusively planted with Pinot Noir. Nearly half of Chorey-lès-Beaune is sold as Côte de Beaune-Villages. Initially, the Tollot family owned vines only in Chorey, but successive generations made small acquisitions in Savigny, Aloxe, and Beaune for a current total of 60 acres. They are the proud owners of two monopoles, Savigny-lès-Beaune Champs-Chevrey and the more recently acquired Chorey-lès-Beaune Pièce du Chapitre. Tollot-Beaut farms lutte raisonée (“reasoned struggle”) and maintains a high proportion of old vines from the highly prized Pinot Fin strain. The Tollot-Beaut cellar is in the center of Chorey-lès-Beaune on the rue Alexandre Tollot, named after Nathalie’s great grandfather who was once the Mayor of Chorey. Parts of the meticulously kept cellar are over 250 years old. Chardonnay is pressed pneumatically and starts fermentation in stainless-steel tanks before finishing alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in barrel. Pinot Noir is almost entirely de-stemmed. The wines of Tollot-Beaut were once made with more new oak but in recent years the oak influence has become subtler. Village and regional wines receive about 20% new oak while the Grand Crus receive about 60% new oak.
