Neil Martin has described Tortochot as 'a name to keep an eye on' and, more recently, as 'one to put back on your list'.  Formerly this was a respected, if unexciting name in Gevrey, established in the 1800s; but since the mid-'90s, there has been an impressive evolution, brought about by Chantal Tortochot.  

Returning after a career in the US to take over the family domaine in 1996, Chantal studied oenology at Dijon University and, with the assistance of consultant Sylvain Pataille, she set about converting the 12 hectares of vines to organic viticulture, certifying the whole vineyard by 2013.  She also stopped selling her Gevrey fruit to negociant Joseph Drouhin, instead choosing to bottle her own wines. 

Chantal's knowledge of the geology of Gevrey is impressive.  On one of our visits, from the garden of her beautiful house on the edge of the village, with the slopes laid out before us, she talked us in great detail through each site and its terroir.  With vines in some of the key climats of Gevrey, including Clos de Vougeot, Mazis and Charmes-Chambertin, and Le Chambertin itself, it is a wonder that the domaine has not received more attention sooner.  

When we first tasted here around five years ago, Chantal was making tentative experiments with whole bunch fermentation; from ten per cent in the 2016 vintage, rising to around twenty-five per cent by 2019.  For winemakers of her generation, whole bunch fermentation was once a thing of the past, thought to produce wines with green aromas and harsh tannins; so her openness to change is impressive.  Embracing the return of this technique as a response to the warmer summers has kept the wines fresh and energetic.  At the same time, less and less new oak has been used in the elevage, producing wines that are very expressive of their terroir, combining the best of modern and traditional styles.