Domaine Collotte Marsannay Vieilles Vignes 2023
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The Land
Marsannay is the northernmost appellation of the Cote de Nuits, the only village in the Cote d'Or permitted to bottle red, white and rose under its own name, and the only Cote de Nuits village with no premier cru at all. An application to classify its best climats has been working through the INAO for years and the appellation is widely expected to get there. The vineyards run through Marsannay-la-Cote, Couchey and Chenove, pressed up against the southern edge of Dijon, with roughly 312 hectares planted to village red. Collotte's ground is clay-limestone built on pebbly alluvial fan deposits washed down out of the combes, stony and free-draining at the top and heavier below. That gravelly base is what gives Marsannay Pinot Noir its firm, slightly rustic frame instead of the perfume of Chambolle to the south.
The Wine
Marsannay red from Pinot Noir, drawn from a two-hectare block of vines over forty years old. Fruit is sorted at the winery, then completely destemmed into concrete tanks for about a week of cool maceration, which pulls color and aroma before fermentation starts. Punch-downs early, pump-overs later, a short push to 35C to finish extraction, then a pneumatic press and roughly ten to twelve months in barrel with new oak held to between 10 and 25%. Collotte likes concrete for its thermal stability and treats every cuvee the same way on purpose, so the site does the talking. 2023 was the warmest growing season on record in Burgundy, with late-March budbreak, light April frost, a successful flowering around May 29 that set a big Pinot Noir crop, and a September heat spike that pushed sugars fast and forced early-morning picking. Black cherry, raspberry, dried rose, a dusting of iron and clove, then juicy acidity and chalky, gently gripping tannin.
The People
Louis and Lucie Collotte rebuilt the family holding in Marsannay in the 1910s, after phylloxera. Their son Jean died at 25 in a cycling accident, and his widow Therese Miallot, herself from a Marsannay winemaking family, ran the combined estates through the 1950s and 1960s with their son Jean-Jacques. Philippe Collotte left viticultural school at 16 in 1981 to work alongside his father, and spent four decades growing the domaine from three hectares to sixteen, convinced Marsannay was undervalued. His daughter Isabelle came in during 2014 and made the decisive change: Philippe had sold much of the crop in bulk, and she stopped that and bottled everything under the family name. The vines are plowed rather than sprayed with herbicide.
Food Pairing
Coq au vin is the layup here, the bacon and the reduced wine meeting the Pinot's iron and black cherry. Duck breast seared and sliced over a pan sauce of cherries and red wine vinegar plays the fruit forward instead. A tart of wild mushrooms, Gruyere and thyme gives the earthier, savory side something to grip. Finish with a ripe Epoisses, the washed rind pulling the tannin smooth. This is the bottle for a Sunday chicken when you want real Burgundy without spending real Burgundy money.
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Burgundy, in eastern France, encompasses several subregions, but it is the Côte d'Or that is home to many of the world's most expensive and revered wines. The region, primarily a single east-facing slope, has mixed limestone soils that vary dramatically from village to village and even vineyard to vineyard. White wines, crafted from Chardonnay, range from rich and opulent to lean and intensely mineral, while Pinot Noir produces silky, perfumed red wines of exceptional finesse and complexity. Centuries of winemaking tradition have resulted in every plot being meticulously recognized and scrutinized, making the Côte d'Or a true capital of terroir.
Burgundy - Cote d'Or
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
