Marsannay 2023

Domaine Collotte is a producer one of my importer friends encouraged me to visit on last year’s trip, and I’m glad I did. The domaine farms approximately 16 hectares, with the bulk of production centered in Marsannay, along with some small, mostly village-level plots in Fixin, Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin. Marsannay is what they are really known for, and they bottle a number of lieux-dits (village-level single vineyards), each vinified and aged separately. There is no certification here, but they farm in a very organic way. Great wine starts in the vineyard, and with many of the plantings dating back to the 1950s, they are working with a very high percentage of old vines.

The importer came by last week with several of the wines, and one absolutely stopped me in my tracks: the 2023 Marsannay Champsalomon. It comes from a single 0.80-hectare plot in Marsannay, a vineyard known for producing some of Collotte’s more powerful and structured wines. As with all of their cuvées, the fruit is 100% destemmed, and a very minimalist élevage results in a wine with amazing aromatics. Red cherry, raspberry and spice are all beautifully balanced and integrated. If I were tasting this one blind, it would be hard not to say Gevrey-Chambertin, as the old-vine character gives the wine real depth and structure. I find it enjoyable now, but this is a wine that will make you look like a rock star if you can keep your hands off it for a couple of years.

For as long as I have been visiting Marsannay, there has been talk of vineyards being elevated to Premier Cru. This is another wine that clearly makes the argument.