Sylvain Dussort Bourgogne Pinot Noir Cote d’Or 2022

Sylvain Dussort comes from a long line of winemakers and coopers based in Meursault. He took over the estate in 1982 with his wife and over the years has expanded the estate with the aquisition of new vineyards as well as the modernisation and enlargement of the winery buildings. The estate now totals 6.5 hectares, half of which is Bourgogne Blanc, the wine that Sylvain takes the most pride in. Update with the kind words of Neal Martin, Vinous: Servants of the Seasons: Burgundy 2021 (Jan 2023) Opposite Domaine Coche-Dury lies a producer that nearly everyone drives straight past. However, a new chapter is opening under young winemaker Anne-Caroline Dussort. She may have relatively little experience, not to mention a small portfolio of modest holdings, but there’s a bright future ahead. “My great grandfather bought the house with two or three hectares of vines in the 1870s,” Dussort tells me once I’ve apologized for forgetting my single Sunday appointment. “They came from Lyon. My grandfather and grandmother lived here in this house all their lives and had two sons. One wasn’t interested in making wine, so my father, Sylvain, took over in 1982. The white wine did not sell, so my father bought some other parcels to make six hectares. There has never been a négoce, and it’s not really my philosophy. I went to business school in 2007, travelled to UK, China and the US, and did my last internship in New York at Sopexa. I was a brand ambassador for six Domaines in the United States. After five years, I decided to come back to France and worked in Paris for a year, thinking about what I wanted to do. I had always felt that winemaking was a job for men. I didn’t realise it, but everything I wanted was back to the family Domaine. But could I make wine?” “So I did the one-year BPREA to learn viticulture in Beaune, going back to the basics. It was confirmation of whether I really could do it. I started working at the Domaine in 2021. I’ve learned so much in two years. I’m working alongside my father, and I'll take more responsibility in a couple of years. He trusts me…98%! He’s open-minded. We have different ideas, but now we are ploughing the vineyards more and more, investing in a new tractor. We have reduced the use of non-organic treatments and only used them twice in 2021. Initially, I wanted to be biodynamic, but when I see some producers going into the vineyards 15 times and spraying copper, I compare that to us needing to go into the vineyard seven times and questioning whether organic viticulture is the solution. When there is a risk of losing the crop, I’m not ready to eschew non-organic products. Maybe in 5 years? The Cuvée des Ormes used to be aged 40% in vats, but these are removed, so everything is aged in barrels except the Aligoté. We source from Raymond and Billon cooperages, and Raphael Coche [of Coche-Dury] and Pierre Boisson sold me their used barrels at a really good price to help me out. I am bottling under Diam 5 and Diam 10. The 2021 season felt like a test to see if I wanted to do any vintage.” Keep an eye on this one. Dussort is taking everything one stage at a time, learning from her father with the Coches over the road on hand to give any sage advice. While there is room for improvement, there is clearly promise here, and I look forward to tasting the 2021s, which have just been racked.