Aloxe-Corton 1er cru Les Fournières, Tollot-Beaut 2022 En Primeur - Case of 6

The wines are superb, reliable and smartly packaged, this being the work of three cousins: Nathalie Tollot on the commercial side with Jean-Paul and Olivier on production. They represent the sixth generation of the family here and even their address is Rue Alexandre Tollot. The distance to their vines is a throwback to how far their forbears could easily travel in a horse and cart! The Tollots were trailblazers too when they started to bottle their own wines in 1921, being among the first domaines to do so (in those days most burgundy was bottled by merchants, either locally or abroad). Today, the slow descent of the service lift, with Nathalie carrying her pipette and basketful of glasses, is a ritual precursor to our tastings at the domaine. You emerge into extensive, dark cellars where the stacks of oak barrels wax and wane according to the generosity of each harvest. Photogenic mould-encrusted bottles mature gently in their bins. “Eighty per cent of the work is done in the vineyard,” says a smiley Nathalie, and the resulting wines – including their signature Chorey-lès-Beaune ‘Pièce du Chapitre’ – have twice been extremely well received at tastings conducted by her in Shrewsbury.