Producer note: Nathalie Tollot was unabashedly enthusiastic in her comments about 2021, exclaiming that "I love this vintage! It has everything that I want in the style of a vintage, though it would have been nice to have some volume! For the first time in our entire history, we had to combine our parcels of Corton as there just wasn't enough volume to vinify the fruit properly. The quality of the wine, which obviously counts the most, is the good news because the growing season itself was incredibly fatiguing. But we survived and picked from the 16th of September and for the first time in several vintages, brought out our optical sorting machine as it's precise and fast. Yields were off on average 40% but there was enormous variability, which is to say basically from almost nothing to normal. Potential alcohols were quite good at between 12.5 and 13% and we chose to vinify normally. As to the style of the wines, I would compare them to either 2002 or 2010 as they're super-fresh and the fruit is much more red than dark. I think they will age gracefully for as long as anyone would want." Tollot noted that the 2021s were bottled in January and February 2023 and I tasted them in early March. Note too that the Tollot wines are deliberately bottled with slightly higher levels of CO2 so decanting the wines is always a good idea. (Winebow, Inc., www.winebow.com, NJ; The Wine Society, www.thewinesociety.com, Tanners Wine, www.tanners-wines.co.uk, Fields, Morris & Verdin, www.fmvwines.com, Farthinghoe Fine Wine, www.farthinghoefinewine.com, Justerini & Brooks, www.justerinis.com and O.W. Loeb, www.owloeb.com, all UK).
Tasting note: Here too the nose is distinctly floral in character with equally cool and pure aromas of the essence of red currant, cherry and a whiff of forest floor. Once again there is really lovely texture to the muscular bigger-bodied flavors that conclude in a serious, compact and mildly austere finish. This won't win any awards for refinement, but elegance isn't why one buys Vercots. Moreover, Vercots is always better in cooler vintages and 2021 proves that point.