DOMAINE COLLOTTE

Created in 1987, the Marsannay Villages appellation is a relatively new one in Burgundy but an ancient and well respected source of fine wine. Located on the southern outskirts of Dijon at the northern end of the Côte de Nuits, Marsannay missed out when the first Villages appellations were handed out in 1930. But it wasn’t because the terroir was deemed inferior. It was simply that there was very little Chardonnay or Pinot Noir planted. The terroir of Marsannay is based on the same complex Jurassic limestone-based geology that runs the entire length of the Côte d’Or. But for the previous hundred years or more, Marsannay’s winemakers had been focussed on the growing suburban population of Dijon. A task made much more commercially successful with wines made from Aligoté and Gamay. The Collottes have been grape growers in Marsannay for four generations, but it wasn’t until 1981 that a young, 16 year-old Philippe Collotte bottled the first wine under the name of Domaine Collotte. He subsequently purchased some mature vineyards of about 40 years of age in both Gevrey-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny, to further expand the domaine’s repertoire.