2012 Chorey Les Beaune

Tollot-Beaut's 2012 Chorey-lès-Beaune is intensely perfumed and juicy, with dark red cherry, hard candy and spice notes that are pushed forward. Firm, slightly coarse tannins give the wine its slightly rustic personality, but I say that in the best sense. The 2012 is an ideal wine for the dinner table, where it will offer much pleasure. The style is frank, direct and super-expressive.

As usual, the domaine produced two cuvees for the 2012 Chorey-les-Beaune Village that will be merged to form a single blend the January before bottling. There is good density on the nose with crushed strawberry and red cherry fruit. The palate is structured with a fresh tart opening. It is compact and linear, though perhaps is missing some persistency on the finish where the oak makes its presence felt, though doubtless it will mellow and impart fleshiness in the long run. Fine. This was my second visit to Domaine Tollot-Beaut – ever. The first was circa June 1997, a milestone in my career since it constituted the first winery that I ever visited. As I quipped to Nathalie Tollot on my return some 16 years later, I know a bit more than nothing about wine. Nathalie herself looks about the same age as she did back then, petit with jet-black hair, slightly Mediterranean looking perhaps, probably takes I.D. with her whenever ordering at a bar. She is one of Burgundy’s most personable vignerons, the kind you fancy going out for a beer with after work. Nathalie actually started her tenure back in 1987, five years after Jean-Paul who is married to Anne Gros in Vosne-Romanee and three years prior to Olivier making the trio of current co-proprietors. They farm approximately 23 hectares mainly close to their winery in Chorey-les-Beaune, including several premier crus and three grand crus. Much of their vineyards are planted at a comparatively high density to other growers at around 11,000 vines per hectare, they eschew chemical fertilizers but will spray if absolutely necessary, completely de-stem their crop, skip cold maceration and practice a short cuvaison. I remarked to Nathalie that in Burgundian terms her winery has positively acres of space, to which she replied that she is grateful for the foresight of her ancestors (indeed, Tollot-Beaut was one of the first domaine’s to bottle their own wine back in the 1930s.) After we had tasted through the reds, we returned to the ground floor level to finish with their Corton-Charlemagne. Unfortunately, Nathalie could not find it. “I’m sure it was up here,” she says in similar to fashion to you and I losing our car keys. After five minutes of searching, she gives up and one assumes she later found her Corton-Charlemagne down the back of the sofa. This is a reliable source of quality wines from Chorey-les-Beaune. Occasionally I feel that the level of new oak can be a little too conspicuous. There certainly lend the wines a modern sheen, if not modern to their core. The aromas and flavors at this address might be described as “strident” and some might argue that they lack subtlety. Nathalie feels that the wood just needs time to fully integrate and having tasted mature examples of her wines I can understand her point. The nuance here develops in bottle as those tannins melt away, so do not be afraid to allow them to age. Chorey-les-Beaune and Aloxe-Corton are two appellations that did relatively well in 2012, two that continue to offer great value for money. I would include Tollot-Beaut’s consistent wines within that category. Importer: Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines (NY) tel. 1 707 738 22 55 (Jonathan Nahrgang). Also available through several merchants in the UK included Justerini & Brooks, Berry Brothers & Rudd and Howard Ripley.