Céline Coté

For Céline Coté viticulture is above all a way of life that allows her to practice her profession outdoors, in contact with nature, following the rhythm of the seasons and with respect of its values.

Terroir, transmission, environment… cultivating the land is an art of living that she skillfully maintains day after day. A philosophy of life that led her to attach the greatest value to the land where life draws its strength, producing organic wine.

A family approach

During the Old Regim period, this vineyard was already exploited by her forefathers. The multisecular vineyard of Tonnerre which, like so many others, experienced the attacks of phylloxera, the competition of more sunny countries’ wines is not spared, in 1910, by downy mildew. Cereals replaced the vines of Tonnerre.

It was not until 1990 that Céline Côté’s parents replanted some of the family plots to revive Tonnerre vineyard. But it is Céline Côté who will be the first full-fledged winemaker of the family in over a century. Very early on, she chose to follow this path by studying biotechnology and oenological viticulture.

Today, Céline Coté cultivates 5 hectares of vines, at places known as “Les Boulôts” and “Les Noirots”, where her ancestors used to harvest their wine production. The choice of these places with limestone basement and exceptional sunshine, reveals all the attention she pays to the terroir, mixing ancestral traditions and constant search for the quality of the grapes.

The terroir as a primary value

This deep respect for the terroir implies more harmonious working techniques with the soil. Also Céline Coté aerates the soil with a decompression pulled by her mare, Absinthe. Thus, lighter than a tractor weighing two to three tons, the horse moves between the rows of vines without deep settling the earth. The soil, with its millennial geological characteristics thus preserved, is more aerated and the vineyard is better off.

Céline Coté sees further than these plots. Through her approach, she wants to contribute to the preservation of nature as a whole. Human activity must not be at the expense of water, air and earth quality. Under these conditions, we can continue to taste good local products: wine, bread, vegetables, fruits, cheeses…

If her convictions increase her workload, the result is precious, delicate and invaluable.

With her convictions, Céline COTE can gently but surely argue that her “terroir is endowed with a potential equivalent to the most beautiful Chablis terroirs”.  The Tonnerre winemaker has talent and passion, carried by an authentic way of apprehending life that allows over the seasons to reveal all the potential of the appellation Burgundy Tonnerre and to make it enjoy by lovers of good wines around the world.  Her ode to nature, to the fair measure of the value of the terroirs is an invitation to tasting and escape.