Domaine Tortochot

Domaine Tortochot is a family estate, which from 1865. Paul Tortochot was the first, followed by Felix, Gabriel and today Chantal, the 4th generation. This domaine owns 12 hectares, 80% of-which are in the villages appellation, 10% premiers and grand crus: They have 7 rows of Clos de Vougeot that usually provide enough for 3 barrels.

Chantal has been at the domaine since 1997, having previously worked in the finance department of a petrochemical company; she returned to Gevrey aged 35 and studied at the Jules Guyot, her father was already 80 years old and died in 2001 so they had just 5 years of working together. It was Chantal who really established the commercialisation in bottle, before that her father hadn’t been so well, so was selling 100 barrels per year to Joseph Drouhin – for a slightly easier life. It was only the villages wines that were sold to Drouhin, so from a potential total of 60,000 bottles Chantal’s father sold about 10,000 from the domaine, predominantly the most important appellations. The clients of Chantal’s father were similarly around 80 years old, so Chantal notes that she had to quickly rebuild her list of clients too – as the list was ‘waning.’ Today all the domaine’s produce is commercialised in bottle.

The domaine is organic certified for their whole 12 hectares – that’s 28 parcels for 11 wines. Large stainless steel tanks and others with enamel coatings are used for fermentation: 5-7 days of cold maceration after destemming, no auto pigeage. A mix of coopers and there’s no racking. The wines stay in their barrels, on their fine lees, until the following December.